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 Through National's charitable foundation, the Science in Action Initiative will provide professional development for inquiry-based science instruction to thousands of teachers in California, Texas and Maine, states where National has a major presence. The initiative also provides classroom grants for hands-on science projects and personal recognition awards for teachers.
"Our goal is to bolster science exploration and increase awareness of the importance of science in everyday life. The most effective way to do this, according to all the studies we've seen, is through interactive, hands-on classroom projects," said Joan Scott, National's director of community relations. "We want to instill a love of science so students become engaged and interested in pursuing careers in science, engineering and technology."
Science in Action's interactive experiments complement traditional textbook learning and teacher instruction. For example, to understand the concepts of static electricity, protons and electrons, student teams may use pieces of silk and wool as well as plastic sticks to create static-charged "wands" to levitate pieces of tinsel. During the observation, students can draw diagrams of what they see and record their observations in notebooks.
Through the Science in Action Initiative, National has provided professional development grants to the following organizations to provide teacher instruction to strengthen hands-on science learning in the classroom: the Santa Clara County Office of Education and the Resource Area for Teaching (California), the Arlington and Mansfield Independent School districts (Texas), and the Maine Mathematics & Science Alliance (Maine).
Science in Action Website
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