What is ASIM?

Imagine if every public high school had thousands of dollars worth of high-tech equipment to educate their students.  With Science in Motion they have access to that and much, much more!

Science in Motion is a revolutionary project which originated Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania in 1986.  Don Mitchell started the program at Juniata college with NSF funding.  Seven years after the SIM program started, a story appeared on ABC News World News Tonight with Peter Jennings about the program (click here to view 28-Meg clip).  Senator Fred Horne from Alabama saw the story and was so inspired that he pushed to get the same program in Alabama.  Six months later on May 3, 1994 the governor of Alabama signed the Alabama Science In Motion program legislation.  Alabama became the first state to institute a statewide Science in Motion program.  Three months after legislation was signed teacher In-service training started on August 7, 1994.

There are now twelve Science in Motion sites around the state serving eleven In-service regions.  Each of the sites is established at public colleges & universities around the state where they provide resources and training to area high schools.  The Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) program is an outreach of the College of Science and Mathematics and serves Barbour, Bullock, Chambers, Elmore, Lee, Macon, Russell and Tallapoosa counties.  Funding for the program is administered through the State Department of Education

The goals of Science in Motion are to provide high-tech laboratory experiences for students and effective professional development for teachers. In many instances the cost of the equipment involved would be prohibitive for individual schools or even systems. Sharing this equipment through Science in Motion offers these opportunities to students from all backgrounds.  Professional development workshops improve teacher mastery of subject matter and equipment use. Through these workshops teachers from different school systems gain the opportunity to network with peers, sharing both content knowledge and teaching techniques. Program specialists may also join with participants to team teach during classroom visits.