LIGO welcomed 26 new teachers and six returning teachers (as mentors), along with an expanded facilitation team, to the 2008 Summer Academy for Teachers, part of the southeastern Wasington Math Science Partnership program. Teachers from the Pasco and Othello School Districts made their way to LIGO for six hours each day between July 7 and July 18 to undertake a variety of course activities related to the nature of science and scientific inquiry. As always, course participants interacted with LIGO staff members through job shadows and interviews, probing to find the ways that professional scientists and engineers think about inquiry. The instructors welcomed newly hired ESD 123 Science Coordinator Georgia Boatman to the Summer Academy. Also on board this year is former Kennewick teacher Lisa Page, serving as a research assistant to WSU Tri-Cities Professor Judy Morrison. Georgia and Lisa will add critical capacity to the MSP program as it undergoes the growth in numbers called for in the 2007 program proposal.

Academy participants improved their understandings of inquiry through investigations of electrostatics, waves and seeds. The photos below show a number of teachers at their hands-on minds-on best.