Science is traditionally taught in American middle and high schools with a teacher standing up in front of a class and lecturing while students take notes and have little opportunity to conduct hands-on experiments or explore concepts and ideas in depth.
That will change if California State University, Northridge education professors Norman Herr and Brian Foley have their way. The pair have received a $100,000 grant from Hewlett Packard, their second grant from the company’s HP Catalyst Initiative in two years, for their Computer Supported Collaborative Science (CSCS) project, which hopes to change the classroom dynamic by giving students more collaborative experiences while at the same time exposing them to the “fun” that can be found in scientific exploration.
