Original Vision

The Black Hills Science Teaching Project (BLAHST) is a synergistic collaboration between 10 school districts in western South Dakota, Black Hills State University, and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Since its inception in the summer of 1999, our project has emphasized the following elements that we deem essential to improving science teaching and learning:

• Deepening teachers' knowledge of science content through professional development opportunities;
• Increasing inquiry-based science in the classroom through implementation of research-based instructional modules. School districts were to purchase modules as their budgets would allow, and the project's headquarters developed a Materials Resource Center with modules available for checkout;
• Strengthening collaboration between the school districts, Black Hills State University (BHSU) in Spearfish, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City (SDSMT), the Center for the Advancement of Math and Science Education (CAMSE) at BHSU, and the communities in which the schools are located.

Our plan for sustaining the vision relied heavily on the establishment of the Center for the Advancement of Mathematics and Science Education; a statewide Center of Excellence funded by the South Dakota Board of Regents and located at Black Hills State University.

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