Panhandle Area Teachers to Receive 'LIFE' Lesson

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) program will host 24 teachers for hands-on research projects as part of the Panhandle Area Education Consortium’s (PAEC) Science, Collaboration: Immersion, Inquiry Innovation (Sc:iii) project. With grant funding from the Florida Department of Education, the Sc:iii project will give a total of 120 science teachers in the Panhandle an opportunity to conduct hands-on research and monitoring alongside scientists, and develop educational programs for area schools. (Pictured: Riversprings Middle School students participate in the LIFE program at Wakulla Springs.)

“DEP is pleased to be a host organization supporting this effort to provide professional development for science teachers,” said DEP’s Office of Environmental Education Director, Greg Ira. “By pairing teachers with scientists, resource managers and environmental specialists in the field, the program immerses teachers directly into ongoing research. This real world involvement in research is an invaluable experience for teachers which will ultimately benefit their students.”

Scientists and resource managers with DEP’s Office of Environmental Education, Northwest District office, Falling Waters State Park and De Leon State Park will engage three teams of teacher participants in collaborative projects. The team assigned to DEP’s Office of Environmental Education will develop a water quality monitoring program for the Wakulla River Watershed. The program will be integrated into the Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) program for seventh graders at Riversprings Middle School next year. DEP’s Falling Waters State Park and De Leon State Park team will participate in a gopher tortoise survey and exotic species removal, and DEP’s Northwest District office team will help with ecosystem restoration projects.

{sidebar id=1}“My colleagues and I can't wait to begin our summer research with the science and education staff of the Department of Environmental Protection,” said Diane Driggers, a fourth grade teacher with Crawfordville Elementary School. “Helping develop a water monitoring program that we can share with other teachers and students gives us the opportunity to do some authentic research and inquiry. The insight we gain this summer will be invaluable when we return to the classroom in the fall.”

The Florida Department of Education awarded PAEC a Math and Science Partnership Grant to conduct the program using methods pioneered by Florida State University Professor Penny Gilmer. Superintendents, professional development and curriculum directors in each district will work with school-based administrators to select the teachers. The program expects to have 40-50 teams of teacher participants, with the potential to impact approximately 12,880 students in a single school year. Each team will dedicate 15 days, six hours minimum per day, to their assignment.

Since 2004, almost 3,500 future scientists and stewards have participated in the LIFE program. The LIFE initiative seeks to establish a series of field-based, environmental-science education programs around the state. Each of the nine existing programs is a partnership between the DEP and a local school district. The goal of each LIFE program is increased student achievement and teacher professional development in science, with the content and delivery varying from site to site.

For more information on the PAEC’s Sc:iii project, visit www.paec-sc-iii.org . For more information about the LIFE program, visit www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/ed/ .

- Photo by Mary Katherine Westmark

This article originally published on June 5, 2008.

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