This is the first year in which the Copernicus SSI will serve a population of multiple subject credentialed K-6 elementary school teachers. Due to high demand, and the higher number of elementary school teachers compared to secondary school (middle and high school) teachers, the number of participants served will increase to 160. The focus of this year’s SSI is Literacy through Science. This is in response to the frequently stated concerns of teachers regarding the continually decreasing amount of time elementary school teachers have to teach science. Strategies that allow teachers to incorporate science with other curricula such as language arts and mathematics will be emphasized.

In order to provide the most effective instruction for all K-6 teachers, most of whom have little or no background in science, we will divide all participating teachers into five content area strands. Teachers will be placed in a strand that corresponds to the topics they have requested on their application and that is appropriate for the grade they teach, in accordance with the California State Standards in Science Education. The content for each of the five content area strands is being developed by five cadres of content specialists. Each cadre consists of a team of three specialists: a university science professor or graduate student; a high school science teacher (with previous SSI training); and an elementary school teacher. Each member of the cadre plays a special role on the team. The professor or graduate-level student will serve as the content specialist, providing deep content knowledge in the strand being studied. The secondary school teacher will have been trained in inquiry-based science pedagogy and have successfully completed Copernicus Project training. Their role is to deliver the in depth science content to the elementary school teachers while modeling inquiry-based science pedagogy. The elementary school teacher will play a dual role both as a member of the cadre and as a participant. The role of the elementary school teacher within the cadre is to facilitate the learning experience for the elementary school teacher participants by providing the proper context for the science content. They will be responsible for ensuring the science content is appropriate for elementary school teachers, and will also play a key role in integrating literacy and mathematics strategies with the science content. This is to encourage teachers to teach science as part of, not instead of, the curriculum they are already required to teach.

Following the Copernicus SSI, site visits will continue throughout the school year. Two formal follow-up sessions will also be conducted in order to provide continued support to teachers.