Members present: Jim Meszaros - Douglas School District, Joe Hillberry - Douglas School District, Kathleen Van Horn - Meade School District, Deborah Thorp - Lead-Deadwood School District, Ben Sayler, - Director, Center for the Advancement of Mathematics & Science Education, BHSU, Bill Roggenthen -SDSM&T, Robert Magelkey -TIE Office, Mitch Chapel - Lead-Deadwood School District, Derrick Lavoie - NSF Science Project Director, BHSU and Dorothy Keller, Center for the Advancement of Mathematics & Science Education, BHSU.

 Absent: Becky Hale -Wall School District, Tim Creal -New Underwood School District, Sandra Gaspar - Spearfish School District, John Swanson - Belle Fourche School District, Josephine Hartman - Kadoka School District, Charles Lamb-BHSU.

Derrick opened the meeting at 1:00 p.m. It was requested by Mitch Chapel that we add Lead Teachers Deb Thorp and Loree Anderson to the Project Management Team and add their email addresses to the distribution list.

Derrick gave a progress report on the upcoming professional development to be held December 6th & 7th at the Center of Excellence. On the 6th will be the K-2 National Science Curriculum Orientation. On the 7th will be the 3-4 National Science Curriculum Orientation. January 18th is tentatively set for National Science Curriculum Orientation, 5,6,7, & 8. At this time, the location is tentatively the Center of Excellence. All of these workshops will primarily focus on the FOSS materials and largely meet the needs of the Meade district teachers who were unable to attend this past summer's material orientation workshop.

Action plans: at this time we only have 4 action plans (Douglas, Lead-Deadwood, Meade, Spearfish), we are still in need of the other 4 (New Underwood, Kadoka, Wall, and Belle Fourche). It was suggested that the project staff (Derrick, Ben, Dorothy) meet with the Districts to assist with completing their action plans and check on their progress.

Derrick passed out the information for ED 652 - Contemporary Issues and Applications in Science Education. This course is being offered spring 2000 Semester by Dr. Andy Johnson. It will be held on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. in Jonas 103. At the present time there are no students enrolled (we need at least 10 students to make it a go). We asked for support from the districts. To gain additional students for this course and the MSCI Science Education program, related information will be mailed to ALL of the teachers in the project.

Derrick mentioned that itemized district cost reports are to him from each district by January 20th. This should be done in a similar way as was done for the original cost share letters submitted with the grant. If you need further information, or help with this, please contact the project staff.

Dorothy provided a report on the material center. Handouts were passed out showing the inventory of each school district and the approximate cost for refurbishing the kits. A spreadsheet was also circulated listing the professional development hours for all of the participants in the project. A problem has arisen concerning dollars allotted for each school district for refurbishment. After considerable discussion, the group agreed that all of the kits owned by the districts should be refurbished regardless of whether or not the particular teacher using a kit has had any professional development. As long as the school district is in the project, their kits will be refurbished. It is understood that further into the grant their may have to be a procedure established to allocate dollars to each school district because the total dollars needed will eventually exceed the money available.

Bill Roggenthen gave a report on the classroom observations. Charles Lamb has made 6 classroom visitations. Furthermore, various elementary classes have visited his classroom at BHSU and he has visited a couple kindergarten classes. He has also corresponded with some of the BLAHST teachers electronically. Bill made one observation with Ben and both considered it to be a productive use of time in that such observations provide a more concrete vision of inquiry-based science, provide feedback to the teacher, increase communication, and can inform the direction of future professional development.

Derrick passed out a handout concerning the Lead Teacher/Principal meeting and evaluations concerning this workshop. The general consensus was that the teachers were very pleased with this workshop and most felt they needed more time to plan together.

Bob Magelkey gave us copies of the Horizon Project Report, which was an overview and evaluation of the LSC Project up to this point. Several recommendations are included in the report. We are only 6 months into the project and we seem to be on schedule.

Mitch Chapel circulated the results of the Needs Assessment Surveys. We are missing a few surveys, but the needs of the districts seem to be fairly consistent and indicate those content areas in greatest need of professional development. The sheet passed out involved Life Science since this will be the focus of the workshops in January. Mitch and John will finish tallying the physical and earth science results and will forward this information to the Center by the beginning of December.

It was pointed out that the model of pairing a professional development facilitator (PDF) with a scientist for delivery of professional development has led to a productive and critical symbiosis. It was agreed that we should try to offer the nine content-focused workshops this spring with scientists-PDF pairs. It was agreed that Ben Sayler (physical science), Charles Lamb (life science), and Bill Roggenthen (earth science) would co-teach these day-long workshops with a lead teacher serving as a PDF. It was decided that each scientist would be responsible for recruiting three PDFs from all eight districts (one for K-2, one for 3-5, and one for 6-8). Dorothy will send copies of the Lead Teacher information to Charles Lamb, Ben Sayler, and Bill Roggenthen. The recruiting for the life science workshops needs to happen quickly. Dorothy will find a central location from which we can run the workshops.

The tentative schedule for the workshops is as follows:

Life Science - Charles Lamb

January 12 K-2

January 19 3-5

January 26 6-8

Earth/Space Science - Bill Roggenthen

February 9 K-2

February 16 3-5

February 23 6-8

Physical Science - Ben Sayler

March 8 K-2

March 22 3-5

March 29th 6-8

The actual focus of each workshop will be decided by the professional development facilitator and the scientist.

Discussion followed concerning the need for correlating FOSS and STC activity kits with South Dakota State standards by grade level. It was agreed that we should begin trying to find these correlations as it would affect district decisions concerning purchasing and sequencing of the national curriculum modules. Charles Lamb has already done considerable work on the Life Science standards. Ben Sayler will start working on the Physical Science standards.

In an effort to maintain good communication within and between the districts, Derrick asked the group to fill out the BLAHST update/feedback sheet and bring it to the next meeting (attached).

The BLAHST website was discussed and it was decided that we add PMT minutes, PMT agendas, Horizon annual report, and evaluation data on the workshops.

The need to document professional development activities that might occur within each district or school was mentioned. We have included a copy of a professional development (PD) Activity Log that will facilitate lead teachers documenting their PD activity and that of other teachers and administrators in their school. These logs should be kept by the lead teachers and returned to the Center shortly following PD activity.

Our next meeting is scheduled for January 20th from 1:00 - 4:00 in Conference Room 1 in the Surbeck Center at SDSM&T. All members are strongly encouraged to send an alternate in the event you cannot be present.