It may be summer vacation, but a group of teachers from school districts across Ohio is spending the week as students with goggles, beakers and chemicals in a science lab at The University of Toledo.

Since March, UT has been training dozens of high school teachers through online classes to teach college courses in biology, chemistry or English as part of an expansion of the statewide College Credit Plus program.

Ohio’s College Credit Plus program allows seventh through 12th grade students to earn high school credit and college credit at the same time for free.

19 high school teachers have been working online to earn qualifications to teach college-level chemistry in their classrooms. 16 of them will be on Main Campus this week for lab classes with UT instructors.

The media is invited as they simulate the effect of pH on food in the stomach by reacting the preservative sodium benzoate with hydrochloric acid from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, June 29 in Bowman-Oddy Laboratories Room 3087.

The chemistry students are teachers from Toledo Public Schools, Belleaire City Schools, Celina City Schools, Centerburg Local Schools, Copley-Fairlawn City Schools, East Muskingum Local Schools, Fayetteville-Perry Local Schools, Findlay City Schools, Indian Valley Local Schools, Lakota Local Schools, Morgan Local Schools, Shadyside Local Schools, Triway Local Schools and Steubenville High School.

English and biology students will take classes on Main Campus at the end of July.

Last year the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education awarded UT $769,000 in grants to develop programs and pay for up to 40 high school teachers to earn a master’s degree needed to teach college-level chemistry, biology or English courses in their high school classrooms.

“By credentialing dozens of high school teachers in our area to teach college courses, we are expanding higher education opportunities for more children,” said Rebecca Schneider, professor and chair of UT’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Judith Herb College of Education.

The teachers who began the 18-month program in March are expected to begin teaching College Credit Plus courses in the fall of 2017.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (June 30, 2016)

Tags: College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Judith Herb College of Education