For RECET program photo opportunities while the teachers are at U.Va.
July 28- Aug. 8, contact Richard Lindgren at (804) 924-3781.


READY, SET, RECET: NEW SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAM GIVES PHYSICS
TEACHERS LABORATORY EXPERIENCES

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 26 -- Middle and high school
science teachers from around Virginia have spent five weeks this
summer in active collaboration with physicists, engineers and other
physical science researchers as part of Research Experience and
Curriculum Enhancement for Teachers (RECET). The program, in its first
year, is funded by the National Science Foundation and the State
Council for Higher Education for Virginia and administered by the
University of Virginia.
	"RECET's primary goal is to develop teachers who will teach
science by doing science instead of merely teaching about science,"
says Richard Lindgren, a U.Va. professor of physics and director of
the program.
	Teachers began their daily commute on June 23 to one of three
research sites -- U.Va. in Charlottesville, the Jefferson Laboratory
in Newport News and the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond -- to
join science teams. "RECET participants work in such areas as fiber
optic communications, medical imaging, space science, water and air
pollution and gamma radiation measurement, to name a few
possibilities," said Lindgren.
	Part two of the seven-week program will bring the 23 teachers
to U.Va. from July 28 through August 8. Participants will "develop
techniques and materials that will allow them to translate their
research experiences into effective classroom instruction," Lindgren
says. 
	The teachers will continue in the RECET program next summer
and will be joined at that time by a second contingent of teachers who
will begin their own two-summer-long involvement with the program.
	Teachers are paid a stipend of up to $60 per day for their
participation and may earn up to 16 graduate physics credit hours over
the two-year period.
	Participants are observed teaching in their classroom before
and after the program to help determine what effect the RECET program
has on their teaching methods. Tracking surveys are conducted by
Gregory MacDougall, a U.Va. graduate student and teaching assistant.
	The program's instructors include physicist Lindgren,
associate professor Joe Garofalo of U.Va.'s Curry School of Education
and former space shuttle astronaut Kathryn Thornton of U.Va.'s School
of Engineering and Applied Science.
###
July 25, 1997
	Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804)
924-7550.

RECET PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS FROM LOCAL AREA

Mary Weller, Charlottesville
	Charlottesville High School, Charlottesville
		Introduction to Chemistry 9-11, Chemistry 11-12,
Physics 11-12

Rick Wellbeloved-Stone, Charlottesville
	Walton Middle School, Charlottesville
		Physical Science 7, Math 7-8

Karyn Traphagen, Afton
	The Covenant School, Charlottesville
		Earth Science 8, Physical Science 9, Physics 11-12

Stephen Macek, Fork Union
	Fork Union Military Academy, Fork Union
		General Science 6, Physical Science 9

James Rosson, Palmyra
	Fluvanna County Middle School
		Physical Science 8