The Teachers and School Directors Professional Development Project of “Millennium Challenge Account- Georgia” which is implemented by the LEPL National Center for Teacher Professional Development, will conduct the training "Using School Laboratories in Teaching Natural Sciences" for 88 science teachers in November-December across Georgia.

In order to facilitate the use of laboratories as a resource, three training modules have been developed on the use of school science laboratories in teaching chemistry, physics and biology. The training modules have been developed by the certified module writers of the project, under the guidance of the project specialists of the Natural Sciences in cooperation with the representative of the United States Laboratory Safety Institute. The names of the trainings are as follows:

· Using the school laboratory in teaching physics;

· Using the school laboratory in teaching chemistry;

· Using the school laboratory in teaching of biology;

The newly developed trainings aim to offer teachers of natural sciences the possibility to carry out experiments using the laboratory equipment acquired within the project.

The contents of the modules will facilitate the development of the skills necessary to effectively use different equipment. Additionally, the modules will allow training participants to master teaching methodology through experiments, practically perform a range of experiments, obtain and analyze data.

The target group of the above modules are 7-12 grades natural science teachers of 21 public schools rehabilitated within the Project of Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia who have already attended the training "Safety in School Science Laboratory." With the support of the project, the science laboratories in the above schools have been renovated and appropriate lab equipment acquired. The Account is implementing the full rehabilitation of up to 100 public schools.

At this stage, the trainings will be held in the following three rehabilitated schools: Gori Public School # 5, Gori Public School # 9 and Khashuri Public School # 9.

" The Natural Science laboratories are a necessary resource for schools and their effective application in the learning process is one of the essential prerequisites for efficient teaching. One of the most important approaches to teaching natural sciences is research-based learning. The training modules developed in the scope of the project that are devoted to effective application of school labs in the teaching-learning process aim at strengthening the research component in science subjects and promoting students' interest in that direction, "said Irina Abuladze, TPDC Project Manager.

As mentioned above, the development of the training module on the use of school labs in teaching a subject was preceded by the development of the training module "Safety in School Science Laboratories" in 2016. The purpose of the training modules was to train teachers in the safe use of science labs, which is a necessary prerequisite for successful and efficient work in the labs especially that the teaching process involves students. In 2016-2017 the training module was attended by all science teachers of the public schools which had been rehabilitated by the “Millennium Challenge Account- Georgia”.

The Project “Millennium Challenge Account-Georgia” is funded by Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and is implemented by the LEPL National Center for Teacher Professional Development with the expert support of the International Consulting Company IREX and the Ministry of Education and Sciences of Georgia.