Teachers had a chance to experience the classroom like their students do at Gardendale Elementary School this week.

Gardendale Elementary hosted Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) training on its campus. The training was for kindergarten through fifth grade teachers who would start teaching a new grade in the upcoming school year.

“It’s really helped me in my own classroom,” said Jean Ann Montgomery, one of the AMSTI trainers who taught at Gardendale Elementary this week. “I’ve had programs before that I wasn’t crazy about, but I believe in AMSTI.”

AMSTI trainers are experienced classroom teachers that are certified by the Alabama Department of Education. They share their own ideas with trainees so the trainees can use them in their own classrooms.

“We’ve found that’s very powerful for the teachers, for somebody who’s been there and done that and who knows what works to train the teachers in different learning styles,” said Karen Wood, director of AMSTI at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB partnered with the University of North Alabama, Athens State University and the University of Alabama at Huntsville to conduct the training at Gardendale Elementary.

The training sessions consisted of hands-on lessons that the teachers experienced as their students would. For instance, fourth grade teachers constructed millipede habitats as part of an “animal studies” module.

“It’s all hands-on, inquiry-based learning,” said Wood. “In other words, it’s the opposite of lecturing.”

Wood said inquiry-based learning focuses on allowing students to ask questions and think critically about the answers.

“Research tells us it’s the best way to learn,” she said. “ The students explore the question to find the answer. It’s discovery learning.”

Gardendale has hosted AMSTI training before, and as many as 300 teachers have attended in past years. However, teachers went through compressed training this week, which allowed for smaller groups to work with their trainers. Teachers from Jefferson, Blount, Cullman and Walker counties were at the training sessions.

Wood said 46 percent of all public schools in Alabama use AMSTI. She said the goal was to get to 100 percent by 2011, but that the economy had slowed their progression.