Click here to visit ANL's Division of Educational Programs website.

The Program

This is an enhancement program for precollege teachers intended to promote the use of sophisticated scientific research tools in precollege science courses. This program involves two main components: (a) training teachers in the operation and applicati on of cutting edge research equipment, and (b) establishing a mechanism by which teachers can borrow the research equipment for use in their classroom. Forensics is utilized as a unifying multidisciplinary theme for the teacher institute and as a s pringboard for classroom activities.

The Argonne Educational Outreach Vehicle is a bold new means of scientific education. The van, coupled with four week summer teacher enhancement institutes, provides Chicago area teachers with sophisticated scientific instrumentation that would otherwi se never enter the classroom and the confidence to utilize it. The summer institutes are offered at both the middle school and high school levels.

The focus for each of these sections is for participants to actively learn scientific concepts and processes by developing both make-and-take models/demonstrations and advanced experiments utilizing research grade instrumentation for classroom impl ementation. Conceptually, the summer institutes are unified by the theme of forensics. This theme is explored both in the laboratory and through lectures by expects, such as Secret Service Agents, and Forensic Toxicologists.

Through Argonne's Educational Outreach Vehicle, participants are able to utilize the advanced experiments and instrumentation in their classroom on a scheduled basis during the academic year. Advanced instrumentation in the van project includes an opti cal bench, Spectronic 20s, superconductivity probes, a Shimadzu UV/VIS spectrophotometer, digital video microscopes, gel electrophoresis assemblies, and analog video microscopes.

For further information on The Outreach Vehicle and Summer Teacher Enhancement Institute, please call or write: