Teachers were the ones in class this week, at least at one Montevallo summer training workshop.

Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) brought almost thirty educators from across central Alabama to the University of Montevallo last week to provide training to high school biology teachers.

The teachers were conducting different lab experiments on everything from bird beaks and dead bugs, to body fat and skeletons, in hopes of implementing the workshops in their own classrooms.

&8220;It has been a very fun but stimulating week,&8221; said Ann Sauers, ASIM biology coordinator.

ASIM was established by the state legislature in 1994 as a way to improve science education in small, rural secondary schools.

&8220;Those schools don&8217;t always have the same resources available as the larger, urban schools,&8221; said Sauers. &8220;So we provide the expertise, training and equipment to high school laboratories.&8221;

The program works much like a library, but one that delivers. A van driver carries science equipment to area high schools and even shows students how to operate it.

&8220;These teachers wouldn&8217;t be able to afford, maintain, store this equipment on their own, so we bring it to them,&8221; said Sauers.

&8220;In my 35 years in education, it is the best way to spend money to get it back directly into the classroom.&8221;