Alabama has recognized the critical need for science education reform to ensure the scientific and technological literacy of its students. Science educators from schools and universities, administrators, representatives from communities, governments, and business and industry across the state are working toward science education reform at several different levels through four reform initiatives focused on the implemenation of inquiry-based science through the use of exemplary curricula.
Alabama LASER targets the school system, ensuring top-down support for the changes required to comprehensively implement inquiry-based science in elementary and middle school classrooms and bottom-up support of well-prepared, enthusiastic teachers.
The Alabama Hands-On Activity Science Program (AlaHASP) is an elementary science education reform initiative providing professional development opportunities for teachers, consultation and support for administrators, and materials for hands-on science activities. The program consists of a consortium of 38 school districts and 3 universities, headquartered at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Education.
The Hands-On Science Activity Program (HASP), based out of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, supports elementary science education reform in Northern Alabama through professional development and materials support for inquiry science in the classroom.
The State Department of Education's Alabama Math,Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) works towards science education reform on a regional level, creating central support centers at universities that serve all the school systems in a given area.
Alabama LASER
AlaHASP