Alumni Association

College of Science and Engineering Receives 3 Million Dollars From National Science Foundation--Project to Enhance Science and Mathematics Teaching in Schools

The College of Science and Engineering has received 3 million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation for a five-year project to enhance science and mathematics teaching in schools.

The program, titled “GK-12: Graduate Fellows in Science and Mathematics Education”, will place ten graduate students (called graduate fellows) into four Duluth area schools for ten hours per week. The area schools are Fond Du Lac Ojibwe Elementary School, Proctor Middle School, Cloquet High School, and Harbor City International School. The graduate students will be enrolled in one of three UMD Master of Science graduate programs: Integrated Biological Sciences, Geological Sciences, and Applied and Computational Mathematics.

Primary objectives of the project are:

1.) increasing the interest, desire, skills and effectiveness of graduate fellows to teach and communicate science and mathematics knowledge with non-technical audiences and K-12 students

2.) increasing the knowledge, disciplinary specific skills, and confidence of K-12 teachers to effectively teach science and mathematics

3.) increasing K-12 student interest and learning in science and mathematics. Photo: Carmen Latterell, Principal Investigator for the project.

The students will participate in summer institutes, academic year activities in the K-12 schools, and additional activities to provide ongoing training, interaction and support among the graduate fellows and the K-12 community. The activities are designed to create a strong interaction between UMD graduate fellows and K-12 teachers in the four selected area schools. They will collaborate to identify, develop and implement an innovative science and mathematics curriculum for their individual school.

"This grant represents an important step in the UMD College of Science and Engineering's efforts to do what we can to enhance K-12 science/math education, and to prepare the next generation of American scientists and engineers,” said James P. Riehl, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering. "UMD Professor Carmen Latterell's outstanding leadership in obtaining NSF funding for this educational program is greatly appreciated by her colleagues.”

The diversity of project participants is aimed at providing valuable interdisciplinary perspectives for students, teachers and fellows.

The project includes strong efforts to broaden the participation of under-represented groups, with an extensive plan to recruit Native Americans as fellows.

The NSF funding provides for 600,000 dollars a year, for a total of 3 million dollars. The Principal Investigator is Carmen Latterell, Associate Professor, UMD Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Co-Principal Investigators are: Program Director/Assistant Professor Cindy Hale, UMD Department of Biology; Associate Professor Penny Morton, UMD Department of Geological Sciences; Professor John Pastor, UMD Department of Biology; and Professor Bruce Munson, UMD Department of Education.


FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE


http://www.d.umn.edu/cse