Teachers and School Directors Professional Development project continues the trainings for teachers of natural sciences. Currently, the training ”The Use of School Labs in Teaching Natural Sciences” is attended by teachers of Physics and Biology.

The project has created three training modules for the purpose of facilitating the use of laboratories as a study resource in teaching chemistry, physics and biology. Highly qualified specialists of the project and representatives of the United States Laboratory Safety Institute were involved in the development of the modules.

The newly developed trainings aim at teaching natural science subjects through experiments using the laboratory equipment acquired by the Millennium Challenge Account- Georgia. At this stage, 88 teachers of the newly rehabilitated schools by the Account will be able to take part in the training.

The content of the modules facilitates to master the skills required for effectively use of various tools. Additionally, the modules allow participants to learn about the experimental methodology, practice and data analysis.

The target group of the above modules is teachers of natural science subjects of 7-12 grades of 21 public schools rehabilitated within the project of the Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia, who have already been trained in “Safety in the School Natural Sciences Laboratory”.

With the support of the MCA, the natural science laboratories have been renovated and laboratory equipment updated in the above schools. The MCA is implementing the full rehabilitation of up to 100 public schools. And the teachers of the above schools will gradually take the training in the laboratory use.

At this moment, four rehabilitated schools have been selected for the training: Public Schools N2, N5 and N9 in Gori and Khidistavi Public School.

"Natural Science laboratories are a necessary resource for schools and their active use is one of preconditions for provision of effective learning process. One of the most important approaches to teaching natural sciences is research-based learning. The training modules developed under the project facilitate the use of school labs in teaching-learning process and is focused on strengthening the natural science research component and boosting students' interest thereupon", - said Irina Abuladze, TPDC Project Manager.

It is noteworthy that the development of the training module on the use of school labs in teaching a specific subject was preceded by the training module “Safety in the School Natural Sciences Laboratory” created in 2016. The purpose of the module was to train teachers in safe use of science labs, which is the prerequisite for successful and efficient work in the lab, even more if the lab work involves students.

In 2016-2017 the training module was attended by school science teachers of all public schools rehabilitated at that time by the "Millennium Challenge Account - Georgia".

Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia’s Teachers and School Directors Professional development project is implemented by National Center for Teacher Professional Development. The project is funded by Millennium Challenge Corporation, with the expert support of the International Consulting Company IREX and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.