In April 1979 several science teachers from the New Haven Public Schools became Fellows of the YaleNewHaven Teachers Institute’s first program in the sciences to prepare new curricula for the 19791980 school year. Established in 1978, the Institute seeks to improve teaching and learning in New Haven secondary schools and to serve as a model of universityschools collaboration. Its principal aim is to open the resources of Yale University to city school teachers and to make these resources available in ways which they indicate will be most helpful.
In applying to the Institute, teachers stated their priorities for curriculum development, the topics on which they proposed to work, and the relation of these topics to courses which would be offered in the coming year. Teachers had primary responsibility for identifying the subjects the Institute would treat, A seminar was organized, corresponding to the principal theme of the Fellows’ proposals, and was led by Professor Alvin Novick from Yale. Between April and August Fellows participated in the seminar, researched their topics, and attended a series of lectures by Yale faculty.
The curriculum units Fellows wrote are their own. They contain four elements: objectives, teaching strategies, sample lessons and classroom activities, and lists or resources for teachers and students. They are intended for use primarily by Institute Fellows and their colleagues who teach in New Haven, We hope they will also be of interest to teachers in other school systems.
James R. Vivian
