The Bayview Science Institute, or BSI, is a transformative professional learning community that deepens the science literacy of PreK-8 teachers and students to empower everyone to see themselves as independent thinkers and real world problem-solvers.
How can I teach science that matters to my students and their communities?
How can science inspire students to become more fluent readers, writers, and mathematicians?
How can I juggle the curriculum, the crunch for time, AND the needs of my students?
And how can I do all of this in the new environment of 2022-23?
Our growing community of educators working in the southeast corner of San Francisco are exploring these questions, and more.
By focusing on teams of teachers and support staff from a few schools at a time, the Bayview Science Institute will encourage school-wide shifts, including:
Once in BSI, always in BSI! All current and former BSI teachers are invited to join summer session and the full array of school year offerings, provided you still work at a BSI target school. Each year we build an even bigger web of peer-to-peer support.
Since 2017, the Academy's Bayview Science Institute has been building and strengthening a relationship of trust with the dedicated and resilient team of administrators and teachers who are working in San Francisco's southeast corner. We have taken our cues from them to find out the best ways we can work alongside them to counteract the systems of oppression which have historically and continuously undermined student learning. We see access to science learning as a social justice issue, and believe students in the Bayview deserve to become critical and creative thinkers. Based on what we’ve learned from the community, we are also supporting teachers to use science teaching as a means to several other ends that are important to them: Science instruction can support student reading by giving them a compelling reason to want to read. It can build community in the classroom because science learning often involves teamwork. Lastly, by actively engaging students with hands-on activities, science can reduce student-to-student and student-to-teacher conflicts.
Participating Schools
Sign-ups for Summer Session 2022 are now open for participating BSI schools! Sign up by May 30th to join us at the Academy and online this summer.
Want more information? Email lwalder@calacademy.org.
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