BELLINGHAM - A nearly $3 million federal grant will fund a study of future elementary school teachers graduating from Western Washington University.

The five-year study will examine the teachers' effectiveness at teaching science by looking at elementary school students' test scores and other markers of progress, said Chris Ohana, an associate professor at WWU and principal investigator for the study.

It also will measure the effectiveness of a few uncommon methods used at Woodring College of Education. For example, future teachers are required to take a year-long sequence that specifically shows them how to teach science to kids, rather than having them take more general science classes in a lecture hall, Ohana said.

So, depending on what the study says about those methods, it may help reshape programs at Woodring.

The sample size will include about 30 to 60 new students per quarter in the Woodring program. Those involved in the first year of research will be tracked throughout the entire five years of the study, and others will be added as the study progresses.

Similar grants from the National Science Foundation were offered to other universities. Data will be confirmed by a third-party research group.

Ohana said the primary research team, which includes two other professors, plans to publish its findings in scholarly journals and to present data at conferences.