Learning to Own the Sky

Mercury, March/April 2005 Table of Contents

Photo courtesy of the authors.

by Jeff Lockwood, Katy Garmany, and Travis Rector

For the past few years, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) has hosted a program supported by the National Science Foundation and affectionately known as TLRBSE: "Teaching Leaders in Research-Based Science Education." Now entering its third year, TLRBSE was preceded by a four-year-long, similar program called "RBSE: The Use of Astronomy in Astronomy in Research-Based Science Education."

The "TL" was added because TLRBSE is a teacher retention-renewal program that has the primary goal of developing and supporting master teachers in the methods of research-based education. These teachers will in turn mentor three of their junior colleagues in an effort to keep good novice science teachers in the classroom and to bring them strategies for implementing research in their classrooms.

The selection process for participants begins each fall. And in the spring, twenty teachers from across the country participate in a sixteen-week distance-learning course, for which they receive three graduate credits from the University of Arizona. The online course combines strands of astronomy content, pedagogy, and leadership. In the final weeks, participants are introduced to the different research projects from which they may choose for their summer effort.

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