Derrick Lavoie, Project Director, convened the meeting at 1:00 p.m. Present were: Derrick Lavoie, Project Director, BHSU; Ben Sayler, Director of the Center of Excellence, BHSU; Bill Roggenthen, Participating Scientist, SDSM&T; Jim Meszaros, Curriculum Coordinator, Douglas School District; Joseph Hillberry, Coordinating Director for Curriculum and Instruction, Douglas School District; Tim Creal, Superintendent, New Underwood; Mitch Chapel, Curriculum Coordinator, Lead-Deadwood School District; Lola Kleinchman for Becky Hale, Wall School District; John Swanson,Curriculum Director, Belle Fourche School District; Kathleen VanHorne, Curriculum Coordinator, Meade School District; Bob Magelky, Evaluator from the TIE Office; Dorothy Keller, Center of Excellence, BHSU. Absent were: Sandra Gaspar, Curriculum Director, Spearfish Middle School and Josephine Hartman, Principal, Kadoka School District.

Mitch Chapel and John Swanson presented the results of their assignment. They composed a needs assessment survey to be given by the school districts to determine the future needs for workshops to be offered for professional development. The Needs Assessment is intended to be used as a data collection tool and a professional development activity. The Needs Assessment should be completed in grade level span groups (K-2, 3-5, 6-8). Each teacher should use the Science Content Standards Technical Guide when completing the needs assessment. The classroom standards listed in the Technical Guide help to clarify benchmarks found on the needs assessment. Each school district in the BLAHST project should return one completed needs assessment for each grade-level span to Mitch Chapel or John Swanson by November 5, 1999. Each district is to administer this survey and Mitch and John will compile the results and forward it to Derrick Lavoie.

Mitch Chapel and John Swanson proposed a list of tentative dates for the academic year workshops. In their schedule all workshops are scheduled for Wenesday. This may or may not work with the scientist's schedules. The proposed dates, grade levels, and topics are:

Life Science:

January 12; K-2

January 19; 3-5

January 26; 6-8

Earth/Space Science:

February 9th, K-2

February 16th, 3-5

February 23rd , 6-8

Physical Science:

March 8th. K-2

March 22nd 3-5

March 29th 6-8

Discussion followed concerning whom would be offering these workshops. Each workshop will be offered by a participating scientist and a chosen Lead Teacher. Ben Sayler and/or Andy Johnson would present the Physical Science workshops; Bill Roggenthen would present Earth/Space Science workshops; and Charles Lamb would present Life Science workshops. Each school district will be responsible for deciding who of their teachers will attend the various workshops. A suggestion was made that a Curriculum Orientation workshop be offered to the Meade school district this Fall. Teachers from other school districts who have not had the opportunity to attend could also be included. At this point the dates for the workshops are tentative. Locations need to be established before these dates are definite.

It was decided that the Principals should be responsible to see that their participating teachers get the needed hours of professional development to keep the project in line with the projected goals. Derrick Lavoie suggested that we might keep a database on the website to keep track of each teacher's hours so the principals would have easy access to the information. We could also send updates of the database electronically so the information would not be so public or a have a secured area of the website. It will be decided which method will be the best way to proceed. After the academic year workshops are over, the data need to be tabulated so that the districts have the information to plan the next year.

Derrick Lavoie provided an update on the MSCI program. He will be sending out a letter of invitation to all teachers in the project to see who is interested. Derrick, Ben and others at BHSU are working on the curriculum for the MSCI program. Mitch Chapel asked if there could be some cooperation with SDSM&T for some of the hours towards the MSCI? Discussion followed about flexibility of program and if courses could be offered via SDSM&T. Derrick is going to investigate further and report back at the next meeting.

The Lead Teacher/Principal meeting is October 18, 2024 from 10:00 am &endash; 4:00pm in the Western Vo-Tech Building in Rapid City. John Swanson suggested that a hands-on, minds-on activity experiment would be good to offer. This type of experience was already planned but it was decided to try to do something that has not been presented previously to most of the group. It was also planned to view some classroom videos to show the difference between good science inquiry and not so good inquiry. We will further check the facilities available at Western Vo-Tech to assure that materials presented will be as professional as possible.

After we have the results of the needs assessment surveys, PDF's will be assigned according to their special skills or interests to the different workshop topics to help the participating scientists.

Derrick pointed out that the $25,000 cost share from the Center of Excellence could be used to offset a potential debt to NSF. Derrick Lavoie discussed the need to reduce yearly costs to NSF. He explained that we have budgeted over five years based on approximately 370 teachers but have approximately 340 teachers presently in the project.

Derrick Lavoie discussed the present plans for refurbishment of the kits. Some schools want the consumables delivered, some schools want the kits picked up and returned.

Dorothy will compile a list of projected yearly costs of the kits that Spearfish use at each grade level so we can get a better idea of our costs.

Charles Lamb, Derrick Lavoie, Bill Roggenthen and Ben Sayler will be making classroom visits to the participating teachers. This will be a professional development experience for the scientists. We do not want the teachers to think of this observation as an evaluation of them. Ideally, there will be a time of discussion after the class between the visiting scientists and the participating teacher. We are hoping that this can be considered professional development hours for the teacher and the project.

The next Project Management Team meeting is scheduled for November 22nd &endash; 12:00 &endash; 4:00 pm in Conference Room 1 of the Surbeck Center at SDSM&T. A meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, January 20th from 12:00 &endash; 4:00. Some of the members were not sure of next semester schedules so the January date will be confirmed at the Nov. 22 PMT meeting.

Minutes taken by Dorothy Keller, Administrative Assistant, BLAHST Project