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The Fleet Inquiry Institute for Teachers

Taylor & Stephanie Welcome to the Fleet Inquiry Institute, the professional development arm of the Reuben H. Fleet’s Education Department. The Fleet Inquiry Institute works with community partners to create and implement K-12 grade teacher professional development based on the process of science and learning science through inquiry. Since its inception in 2002 the Fleet Inquiry Institute has worked with over 600 teachers and 120 pre-service teachers in long term, on site, and in-classroom professional development programs. To find out how you can partner with these programs or for more information about current programs please contact the Fleet Inquiry Institute Project Director, Cristina Trecha at (619) 238-1233 ext. 864 or by email: ctrecha@rhfleet.org.

Previous Teacher Professional Development Partnerships

Current 2010 Teacher Professional Development Partnerships

Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon teachers attending the Balboa Park Program gather at the Fleet Inquiry Institute to explore innovative ways to modify current classroom curriculum, with a focus on process skills. Over the course of the year this partnership between the Fleet Inquiry Institute and the Balboa Park Program will reach over 320 teachers including special education, impacting a total of 10,000 students. Every week you can see them alongside Fleet Inquiry Institute staff on live display in our teacher resource room, the Teacher Think Tank (T3). This partnership began in January 2010. Find out more about the Balboa Park Program here.

Every quarter the Fleet Inquiry Institute offers two sessions of a one day “Questions and Inquiry” workshop for community college teacher education students through a partnership with Mesa College. At the beginning of every quarter the community college students attend this workshop at the Fleet where they explore raising questions as a learner, and then work in pairs to lead a hands-on science lesson to small groups of 3rd-5th grade students from the classrooms of FII teacher alumni. This partnership began in September 2009. Find out more about the Mesa College Elementary Education Preparation A.A. here.

Biannual Teacher Institutes

Every summer and winter the Fleet Inquiry Institute offers its biannual Weeklong Inquiry Institute where teachers from throughout southern California come together to refine their understanding of inquiry, the science process skills, hands-on science strategies, and their role as facilitator of questioning in the classroom. Part of this workshop is based upon the Fundamentals of Inquiry workshop developed by the Institute for Inquiry at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The Fleet Inquiry Institute also utilizes the Science Process Flowchart from www.understandingscience.org as a tool for teachers to reflect on their own learning through inquiry during the Institute. Alumni of this workshop have access to hands-on science kits developed by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, weekend workshop opportunities, in-classroom follow up with Institute staff, time for planning with other teachers in our Teacher Think Tank, and student workshop opportunities.