LOS ANGELES EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP'S TARGET SCIENCE TEACHER NETWORK recently received a $400,000 grant from the Eisenhower Professional Development State Grant Program to introduce technology into science curriculum for economically disadvantaged students in Los Angeles.

The grant will be used to develop "Project Inquiry," a three-year partnership of Target Science, the Los Angeles Systemic Initiative (LA-SI) and UCLA's California Science Project. This team will provide technical assistance and professional development for K-12 science teachers in 18 Los Angeles Unified School District schools. Each school will be responsible for developing its own individual plan to meet Project Inquiry goals.

Beginning this spring, the project team will facilitate a series of professional development workshops for teachers which will explore new strategies in integrating technology with sound classroom instruction and inquiry as well as giving educators the opportunity to network with other colleagues citywide.

"We cannot afford to have some classrooms that have high technology and other classrooms that do not," said Patricia Dung, Science Director for the Los Angeles Educational Partnership and co-director of the UCLA Science Project. "Access to the information superhighway for all our children helps ensure a competitive work force and an informed citizenry for the future."

Teacher teams will be able to visit the classrooms of lead teachers from other schools to observe successful teaching methods in action where students are engaged in scientific inquiry using technology. When implemented into the classroom, teachers and their students will use technology to find information; acquire and analyze data, and report results; and conduct scientific investigations in the field.

Participating teachers will also receive telecommunications training to learn how to use technology as a learning tool to gather information, share investigation results and resources, and discuss environmental issues and action projects online.

In addition, teachers will develop a "Science of Cities" Web site, which will be regularly updated with workshop content and information as well as content from university faculty and other experts. This information will include virtual field trips, student field investigations, classroom activities, interactive online activities, related Web sites and other resources for teachers.

A collaboration between LAUSD and the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, Target Science is a teacher network program that engages more than 3,000 elementary and secondary teachers in a joint effort to improve science education in 91 schools in the LAUSD.