Teachers learn to make science come alive

Helicopters made out of notebook paper spun through the air of an Arizona Western College physical science classroom Tuesday.

Outside, a group of students played the role of predators, prodding the grass with pinchers and straws as they simulated a hunting exercise on natural selection.

But these hands-on classes weren't filled with typical students. They were elementary and middle school teachers participating in Project SETIS (Science Equipping Teachers, Inspiring Students).

The project is a two-week series of workshops taught by science and math professors at AWC and Northern Arizona University-Yuma.

Yuma Elementary School District 1 and Somerton Elementary School District both sent teachers to SETIS training, which ends Friday.

The goal is to give them a stronger background in physical, earth and life sciences through lectures and field experiments.

When the next school year begins, they will take what they've learned back to their classrooms to apply it to their own science lessons.

"This class has been very beneficial to me," said Dina Munoz, a fifth-grade teacher at Desert Sonora School in Somerton, after standing on a chair to better release one of Professor Tony Bottone's paper helicopters. "I didn't know anything about science. I didn't even know how to turn on a microscope."

Terry Lowe, Project SETIS coordinator with District 1, said it is funded with $671,000 in grants from the Arizona Department of Education.

SETIS was started in 2006 and is funded through 2008. About 180 teachers will have participated after the three-year cycle is up. This is the second year District 1 and Somerton teachers have trained with it.

Jennifer Sullivan, a third-grade teacher at Tierra del Sol in Somerton, went through SETIS last year. She's helping to coordinate the event this year.

She said she's used the training to do experiments with her students, including a biological survey of the Tierra del Sol playground.

She turned her third-graders loose to gather specimens and record findings of plant, insect and animal life that inhabit it.

"All of a sudden the playground wasn't just this big dirt lot that they ran outside and played jump rope on. They found a lot of different things that they could do with it," Sullivan said.

Professor Vicki Ardisana of NAU-Yuma said getting teachers passionate about science needs to happen to create students who can compete in the growing global economy.

"It has to start way down in kindergarten in order for us to be able to have the kind of citizens that we're going to need," Ardisana said.