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InSTEP together with Signals

Signals of Spring and the Center for Educational Technologies' (CET) InSTEP Program are teamed up for Summer 2003! Over 500 teachers from West Virginia will utilize Signals of Spring's maps and data in order to derive good problem-based learning (PBL) experiences and applications for the classroom. Hosted by InSTEP, the Workshops each run for one-week and are scheduled to August 2003. Held at Wheeling Jesuit University, teacher participants are being trained in PBL strategies and skills. The teachers are at different Levels of Expertise, or "STEPS" But all participants are making discoveries about some of our animals' springtime movements during the week they are on campus.

Kathleen Norris, the Project Manager for InSTEP, boasts, "Our partnership with Signals of Spring gives teachers a great resource of earth imagery and data that teachers can use as a springboard for the development of new problem-based and inquiry-based scenarios." In several "STEPs" teachers learn to facilitate inquiry in their classrooms. Norris adds, "One of our main objectives is for classrooms to use technology effectively, in order for students to acquire good information, whereby they can learn science from asking questions."

The InSTEP facilitators were trained in the use of the web site as well as the special Signals of Spring analysis journals in May 2003.