Field-Testing Teachers

In September 2002, at the invitation of Nestor Collazo, District Science Curriculum Supervisor, and Science Education Coordinators Frank Botti, Kathy Cosenza, and Madeline Roman, the 30 middle school science teachers from the Paterson (NJ) School District were invited to participate in the field-testing of the Detectives in the Classroom curriculum. To do so they agreed to participate in 5 Detectives' Professional Development Workshops, teach the Detectives' investigations with fidelity, complete assessments of the investigations, and to allow their students to complete a pre- and post-test. Ten teachers volunteered to participate. Two high school teachers also volunteered to participate. All teachers' who volunteered to participate in the field-testing were supported by their principals. The volunteer teachers and their principals are identified below.

In addition, the middle school principals and science teachers at nine other schools agreed to allow their 7th grade science students to complete a pre- and post-test. These teachers and their principals are identified below.

Detectives in the Classroom
Field Testing Team
October 24, 2002

The ten Field Testing Team science teachers held their first meeting on October 24, 2002, at the Paterson Public Library, and reviewed the six investigations that compose Module 1.

The purpose of the Module 1 investigations is to teach students to answer the Essential Question, "Why are some people getting sick while others are remaining healthy?" and develop the Enduring Understanding, "Clues for formulating hypotheses can be found by describing the way a disease is distributed in a population of people, in terms of person, place and time."

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