The Teacher Internship Program for Science (TIPS): A Successful Museum-School Partnership.

The four-year Teacher Internship Program for Science (TIPS) was a successful museum-school partnership between the Museum of History and Science in Louisville, Kentucky and the Jefferson County Public Schools. While in the internship, a total of 40 elementary and middle school teachers spent an equal amount of time teaching in their classrooms and training at the museum over a one-year period. At the end of the fourth school year and final year of the study, May 1992, a survey was administered to TIPS teachers and a random sample of elementary- and middle-school teachers. The survey results showed that, when compared with non-TIPS teachers, significantly more TIPS teachers involved their students in various science instruction activities, the TIPS teachers spent significantly more time in science instruction, and rated their students higher in interest in and understanding of science.