Science Education Specialist Program: Certificate Candidates

The ITS Center Program for certificate candidates is ideal for teachers or administrators who are seeking a continuing education experience or for those who wish to explore graduate-level coursework before committing to a master's or doctoral degree. Whether your objective is an advanced degree or a fulfilling professional growth experience, your skills as an educator will be broadened.

Financial Support: Assistance Available for All Participants

Through National Science Foundation funding, all ITS Center participants are eligible for summer stipends, as well as tuition and fee waivers. Degree Candidates are able to apply for supplementary tuition support in addition to assistantships at Texas A&M University.

Core Curriculum: 12 Free Graduate Hours

The ITS Center has assembled curriculum for two, three-week sessions spread over successive summers designed to increase your technology skills and pedagogical content knowledge in science and mathematics. The resulting graduate credits may be applied toward a possible master's degree or doctorate through a variety of departments and colleges across the Texas A&M campus.

Interdisciplinary Project Teams: Collaborating toward common goals

ITS Center project teams work together to connect current science research to classroom practices as they explore mechanisms for how both scientists and students learn. To see examples of this practice in progress, check out our current teams and their work.

Team Projects: The Final Frontier

Team members work together to develop a topic, gather information, discuss theories and create a final project to present upon completion of each summer session. For example, in Summer 2001, Biology's Macro and Living Worlds Team worked on 3-D modeling of cell structures in an effort to provide a web-based tool that high school students could use to contribute to biologists' research.

Professional Growth Experiences: Beyond the classroom

In the academic year after each summer session, participants are involved in professional growth activities unique to their respective science teams. Successful involvement in these activities qualifies participants for continued ITS Center funding.

Requirements

All participants must be admitted into graduate school at Texas A&M University as Post-baccalaureate Non-Degree Seeking (G6) students.

Teachers Said!: Saluting ITS

"Boy, have I come a long way, thanks to ITS. My peers are actually asking me technology questions!"
- Debbie Horton, biology teacher, Victoria ISD

"With the sessions this summer and the materials we covered, I had the foundation to back me on why multi-sensory activities are important. These come from visualization, interaction and modeling. Math is the language of science, and so it all fits well together."
- Naveen Cunha, middle school science teacher, College Station ISD

"When I set an example, by doing highly visual activities that use technology in innovative ways with my students, I find I encounter more and more colleagues who are eager to learn to do the same They are constantly asking for advice as to how to go about implementing these changes in their schools, because they see the successes we are having."
- Sandra Geisbush, lead teacher, NSF Urban Systemic Program, Northeast ISD, San Antonio

Team Case Study:

ITS Center's Environmental Science Risk Assessment Team worked with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in July 2001 to assemble a museum exhibit that teaches students and museum visitors all they ever wanted to learn about a certain high-stakes subject: risk.

R!SK, which opened a nationwide tour March 2, 2002 in Fort Worth, showcased a variety of interactive, realistic experiences that bring to life the perception - or misperception - of risk. One such experience, the Beam Walk (seen left), immediately transported patrons 17 stories above ground, complete with wind and noise, into one of the highest-risk, real-life situations of all - construction.