Scientists invited to join teachers in fight against scientific illiteracy.

As a tropical disease specialist, AAAS member Barbara Sina has traveled the world from Brazil to Kenya to the Netherlands. But few ofher trips have proved more satisfying than the visits she's paid closer to home-to Margaret Brent Middle School in rural St. Mary's County, Maryland. It was there that Sina got her first taste of teaching science to adolescents as a partner to 7thgrade teacher Tony Marcino. Sina's chance to work with the budding scientists came when she read an article about the Bell Atlantic-AAAS Institute for Middle School Science and Technology Teachers. Each year,, organizers choose 40 science and technology teachers from the mid-Atlantic states to attend a two-week, three-credit graduate course on communications and information technology in Washington, D.C. This year's Institute runs from 22 July through 2 August. The teachers get intensive hands-on training in a variety of subjects such as weather, fiber optics, remote sensing, robotics, video-disk technology, and computer science. Seasoned veterans of the program offer ways