Original Vision

STEP-uP (Science Teacher Enhancement Project-unifying the Pikes Peak Region) partners Agilent Technologies, Colorado College and five school districts-Harrison, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Academy, and Lewis-Palmer. STEP-uP's five participating districts have been using FOSS, STC, and Insights materials and have had refurbishment systems in place for four years prior to NSF funding. For information on STEP-uP's three-tiered differentiated professional development model and course offerings go to www.stepupscience.org.

The partners' goals were to:

• develop a leadership cadre of teachers, administrators and other science professionals in order to improve achievement for all K-5 science students
• utilize sound professional development principles and research as a framework in order to create a new culture of science professional development that would sustain the hands-on, minds-on reform
• induct new teachers into the science reform effort
• utilize "unifying concepts" in field- and lab-based content courses that model effective inquiry pedagogy
• integrate cross-curricular content standards using science as the content core.

At the outset, sustainability components targeted by STEP-uP were Leadership Development, New Teacher Induction, Embedded Professional Development that furthered a science-friendly culture, and "Science as the Content Core" as a vehicle to integrate and apply literacy and mathematics standards. The action plan, however, was far from complete. Our challenge was to begin the work of providing 130 hours of professional develop for 1311 teachers while at the same time keeping an eye on fleshing out the components and details of a sustainability plan. As we near the end of our third year as an LSC, we feel that we have made significant progress in making our sustainability plan realistic.

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