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SELECT

Science and math literacy starts with our teachers. Rider University’s Science Education and Literacy Center (SELECT) is changing how teachers learn science and mathematics by modeling inquiry based teaching and learning.

SELECT means….discovering science for life!

What is SELECT? SELECT is a formal collaboration between Rider’s School of Education and science departments dedicated to improving K-16 teaching and learning in science and mathematics.

SELECT offers a continuum of K-16 teacher preparation and professional development programs that span a teacher’s entire career, beginning in the undergraduate, or preservice, years. This makes SELECT unique, since most existing education reform efforts focus solely on professional development for teachers already in the workforce.

SELECT’s goals are to:

Improve preservice teacher preparation
Partner with school districts to provide inservice teacher professional development for K-12 teachers of science and math in the region
Provide science/math community outreach
Engage in science/math education research

Through SELECT:

science, math, and education faculty at Rider have worked together to redesign 12 undergraduate and graduate courses to incorporate the inquiry approach to teaching and learning so that preservice students are learning science/math in the same way they will be expected to teach it in their classrooms
an estimated 800 teachers of science and math (including repeaters) already in the workforce have participated in an array of professional development experiences tailored to their needs because they are derived from on-going collaboration with their districts
more than 1,200 high school students and their teachers have participated in the PROBE program and engaged in the scientific process through field research and professional review of their findings
a new model for teacher professional development -- called CONNECT-ED -- has been developed, tested, and implemented in the region, and valuable data is being gathered and analyzed to assess its efficacy
a new Integrated Sciences major, housed within the Department of Geological and Marine Sciences, has been developed to help meet the need for qualified middle school teachers of science and mathematics

SELECT is housed in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching and Learning, a high-tech facility designed specifically for teaching/learning by inquiry.

SELECT Initiatives

Bristol-Myers Squibb/Rider University Grant Program for Enhancement of Science Teaching: This grant program is funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and administered by Rider SELECT. Grants support initiatives that improve the teaching of PK-12 science. Public school districts, independent, and parochial schools in Mercer, Hunterdon, Somerset, Monmouth, Burlington, Ocean, and Camden Counties in NJ and Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties in PA are eligible to apply. The grant announcement and guidelines are released annually in January.

IDEAS: Inquiry, Development, Exploration and Study (IDEAS) is an interdisciplinary learning community of about 15 science, math, and education faculty who meet monthly to mentor one another in the inquiry approach to teaching/learning at the undergraduate level and to explore issues related to science and math education.

PROBE (Program for Regional Outreach in Biology Education): 1-day workshops in aquatic ecology for high school students and their teachers, plus professional development workshops for teachers.

CONNECT-ED (Consortium for New Explorations in Coherent Teacher Education): A consortium of 13 public school districts, 2 universities, 1 community college, and 1 corporation dedicated to providing sustained, coherent professional development for its K-12 teachers of science and math.

Virtual Learning Communities (VLC): Web-based learning communities of preservice students, inservice teachers, Rider faculty and others dedicated to developing expertise in the practice of inquiry-based teaching and learning.

VideoPortal: Annotated videos of inquiry based math and science teaching in second-, third, sixth- and seventh-grade classrooms. Access to the videoportal is through SELECT virtual communities only.

Content or Curriculum-Specific Workshops: Content and inquiry workshops for K-12 teachers of science and mathematics. Please contact tlc@rider.edu for more information or to plan a workshop for your district.

Collaborations with national organizations: National Science Resources Center

SELECT Library Resources

The Teaching and Learning Center maintains a Rider SELECT lending library of books, workbooks, and videos geared toward inquiry-based teaching and learning, literacy in math and science, and cognitive research. The collection is located in the Faculty Lounge in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching and Learning (BMS CSTL, 3rd floor of the Science & Technology building). To borrow an item, please come to the BMS CSTL reception desk (9 AM – 3:30 PM) and sign it out. After hours, please use the sign out sheet on the library shelf.

You can access the collection online. Items in the collection are cataloged in an online data base called LibraryThing, a library-quality catalog, which enables you to view and search the collection, read comments and reviews, and connect with people who read the same things. You can also make requests or recommendations for acquisitions.

To access the catalog:
• Go to www.librarything.com.
• In “Join Now,” fill in a user name and password of your choice. (There is no cost to join.)
• Once logged in, choose the “Search” tab (top of page)
• In the “Members and Locations” box, enter “RiderSELECT” (all one word).
• Click the Search button.
• One result will be found: RiderSELECT. Click on the link to go to the RiderSELECT profile page.
• Click on “See Library” to view/search the entire collection, or click on any tag to see a specific topic.

We are grateful to the following donors whose grants have funded many of the items in the collection: Johnson & Johnson and the NJ Commission on Higher Education.

For information, contact Dr. Kathleen M. Browne, Director of SELECT, at (609) 895-5408 or email to tlc@rider.edu.