• Teachers note improved productivity during department meetings. The limited time is available for teachers to meet as a department has been useful to address immediate or crisis issues but underutilized in terms of being used to review changing city and state standards and their impact on curriculum planning. The science department first began working with a facilitator toward the end of the '99-'00 school year. Initially, there was skepticism about the value of working with an external facilitator since the department had been meeting regularly for years and was in fact, the only department at the Timilty to do so. However, within the three months, teachers worked in small teams to, for the first time, document the processes necessary to sponsor a school-wide science fair and develop a timeline for the 2001 fair. From this process, more in-depth discussions emerged regarding standards and curriculum.
• Consensus to work as a department to create a common "Timilty experience" in science by developing a teacher handbook The desire to create a common science experience for Timilty students is a shared vision for the members science department. The handbook is a tool for teachers to begin aligning all the education reform efforts, city frameworks, state standards, literacy and other initiatives toward a common vision. Although standards and other efforts are likely to change, the vision will remain consistent and can therefore be sustained despite external changes.
• The role of the external facilitator has been critical to achieving success in working with teachers and building their internal capacity to work as a high performing team. While teachers have the science knowledge, further development is needed to develop the skills required to facilitate group/team processes aimed at creating systemic change through consensus building.

• Promoting team learning The greatest challenge by far has been fostering team development and team learning in an environment built on authority and autonomy. Overcoming this challenge requires commitment, time, and patience as change is necessary at both the individual and the system levels. The assumption was that teachers worked as a team since they are the only department that meets regularly at the school. However, teachers needed to learn the skills necessary to establish a dialogue with one another in order to become an effective team versus effective group of individuals.
• Encouraging systemic thinking As someone outside of the public education system, it is easier to see the "big picture" from a more systemic level and identify problems as being either real problems, or symptoms of much broader breakdowns in the system. The problems teachers face are often symptoms of systemic issues in the school. However, unless one is unable to distinguish a "symptom" from a "systemic" problem, one becomes caught in a cycle of repeatedly addressing the same symptoms rather than addressing the systemic source of the problem.
• Determining the appropriate role for an external partner As the business partner of a curriculum-based program, it has been challenging to determine the most appropriate role for the hospital. Initially, when the Science Connection was activity-driven, the hospital was the provider of resources to support those activities. As the Science Connection became more integrated into the Timilty's science program, the hospital's role expanded to include being a liaison between the school's science department and administration. In order to ensure the Science Connection is sustainable at the school, the role of the hospital has evolved to ensure that the necessary processes are in place to link the science department with hospital resources that provide students with a common hands-on, inquiry based "Timilty experience" in science.

• The Science Fair Mentor and Student Guides can be used as templates for organizations interested in establishing a science fair mentoring program. The comprensive guides offer project ideas, suggested timelines, and other information pertinent to establishing a science fair mentoring program.
• We've created a Science Fair Judging form that evaluates students' science fair projects in three areas, the quality of the board, experiment, and presentation.
• Every year, the Timilty hosts two to three Science Family Activity Nights coordinated by the Science teachers. These events have been successful at engaging family members in hands-on, inquiry based activities. The theme of these events varies with interests.

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