This Institute, consisting of courses, workshops and presentations given by innovative and inspiring teachers, aims to bring together educators, students, and other concerned citizens who want to enliven science education and, more broadly, enrich people's understanding of the role of science and technology in society.

Institute students can enrol through Continuing Education for any of the July-August CCT courses listed in their summer bulletin -- CCT601, "Critical Thinking," CCT697A, "Biomedical ethics," and CCT697C, "New Directions in Science Education."

The Institute courses count towards a 15 credit Graduate Certificate in Science, Education, and Society, which can be completed by taking additional CCT courses in the fall or spring semesters (subject to approval of revised requirements for the CCT Certificate by Graduate Studies). Certificate students must meet the same admissions criteria as students entering the Master's program and should apply to Graduate Admissions by Aug. 15th.

"New Directions in Science Education" consists of a series of four two-day workshops, described below. For planning purposes, permission of the Program is needed to enrol in the course or workshops. A non-credit option is available to allow interested people to attend single workshops for a fee of $100 per workshop.
For more information, please contact the CCT Program Office, tel 617 287-6520 or email cct@umb.edu

1. July 14-15
CRITICAL THINKING AND SCIENCE EDUCATION
Philip Higgs, Educational Studies, University of South Africa

"There is no such thing as a natural educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes 'practice of freedom', the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality, and discover how to participate in the transformation of the world." Paulo Freire

During this workshop, we shall explore the meaning of science as the 'practice of freedom'. In doing so, participants will:
* be introduced to different methods of inquiry which share the common goal of exploring human knowledge and experience in trying to bring what is hidden to light
* re-examine the concept of science from different perspectives
* transfer their ideas and thinking from one context to another

The overall outcome of the workshop will be directed at exploring the significance, for curriculum materials and assessment strategies in science education, of giving due attention to the idea that nothing is ultimate or final, that there is no 'one truth', but rather a range of options and possibilities in the pursuit of knowledge.

2. July 21-22
ILL-DEFINED ENCOUNTERS ARE THE RIGHT KIND!
(guiding problem-based learning in science classrooms)
Nina Greenwald, Critical & Creative Thinking Program, U. Mass Boston
The best way for students to understand science is to experience problems that challenge science, and the thought, habits of mind and actions associated with trying to solve them. An exciting way to bring this about is to link them with practicing scientists and their work.

A conversation by a leading biomedical scientist about perplexing aspects of their research is the basis for participants to "unearth" a problem that interests them and initiate its investigation through a model the presenter has developed for problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is an authentic, experiential form of learning involving collaborative investigation and solution-finding for ill-defined (messy!) real-world problems. In this active learning workshop, the nature (and challenge!) of important role shifts in the PBL process for students and teachers, and the efficacy of PBL for promoting interest in and understanding of actual science are major emphases.

3. July 28-29
SCIENCE IN ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT
Peter Taylor, Critical & Creative Thinking Program, U. Mass Boston

A common impediment to students and citizens engaging with science is the image of science as established knowledge that a limited number of people master. Inquiry-based science education, however, stems from a different perspective: science as questioning, inquiry, and discovering. In this workshop we explore ways that inquiry-based approaches can be enhanced by placing developments in science and technology in their social context. Cases from ecology, biology, and psychology illustrate how close examination of concepts and developments in the science leads to questions about the social influences shaping scientists' research or its application. Such questions, in turn, lead to new questions and alternative approaches in those sciences.
The cases used in the workshop introduce various student-centered activities and critical thinking perspectives. Building on these, we develop lessons and activities in our own areas of interest to teach or present to the wider public. We also reflect on the particular challenges each of us faces in fostering an inquiry-based and socially-contextualized approaches to science. The approaches presented in the workshop do not respect traditional disciplinary separations and should be engaging to middle school-college level teachers in social studies as well as the sciences and to other participants from a wide range of backgrounds.

4. August 4-5
ALIGNING INNOVATION WITH SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS
Steven Fifield, Biology Department, University of Delaware

Science teachers who want their students to experience the richness and complexity of science as a way of knowing will find strong support in the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and many state and local curriculum frameworks that are based on the NSES. The NSES presents a vision of science education in which students use inquiry methods to pursue meaningful questions, develop historical and philosphical perspectives on science, and critically examine science in its social contexts, all perspectives that are often missing from science classroom experiences.
In this session we will examine how standards documents can be used to support critical thinking about richly contextualized topics in science. We will consider how approaches presented in the previous sessions in this workshop series address the changes called for in standards documents. Then we will review assessment strategies that support student learning and document the effects of science teaching that features student-centered activities and authentic problems. Participants will develop assessments to accompany curriculum materials they currently use or that they developed during this workshop series. By the end of this session participants will have laid the groundwork of curriculum materials and assessments foster critical thinking in and about science in personal and social contexts.