Jamestown is at the heart of any teaching and learning of colonial American history. Stories of John Smith and Pocahontas are learned by elementary and secondary students across the United States. In Virginia, Jamestown is first taught in third grade and revisited five more times from historical, political, economic, and geographic perspectives.…

This document is a comprehensive directory of Federal offices, programs, and facilities for K-12 education in mathematics and science for the Appalachia Region. The purpose of this directory is to assist educators, parents, and students in attaining the National Education Goals, particularly Goal 4: "By the year 2000, U.S. students will be…

This handbook features ideas for implementing Project WET activities in Virginia. Project WET activities are designed for a variety of educational programs and can be used to complement existing curricula while addressing curricular objectives and educational standards nationwide. Activities include: (1) "Life Systems"; (2)…

The James River is one of the most precious resources of Virginia. It was the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World; the power of the water at the Fall Zone was a major factor in the development of Richmond; and the river served as a primary transportation route to the West via the Kanawha Canal. Both the water itself and…

Inverness Research studied the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Seminars on Science program for eight years, from its inception in 1998 to 2006. This paper presents teacher survey ratings for "The Ocean System", along with profiles of three teachers who took the course. Course takers report on the annual follow-up surveys that…

In the 1990s, the nation's educational focus turned to troubled schools in the nation's poorest cities. Under the leadership of Luther Williams, then Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Urban Systemic Initiative was created to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics. Recognizing that high-needs…

The mission of the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) was to build a long-term capacity that would improve the educational structures of the rural communities it served. The major strategy ARSI used to create improvement communities across Appalachia was to identify, embrace and educate individual teachers, who became ARSI Teacher…