| Two grants total $2.6 million for STEM education, research | ||
|
In the high-stakes race to get U.S. children as interested and educated in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as their overseas peers, Tech will be receiving $2.6 million from the state for two three-year projects. The projects are designed to ramp up STEM professional development for teachers and measure the impact on teacher knowledge and practice, as well as the academic achievement of students. Dozens of teachers of STEM subjects across the state will become students again through two projects designed to teach the teachers. In Tennessee, K-8 science teachers are required to have only K-8 licensure and no degree or specialization in the subjects they teach. Tech’s projects strive to bring those teachers together with mathematicians, scientists and engineers to increase their knowledge and improve their instructional skills. “You need more knowledge and training in today’s world to lay a solid foundation for 5th- and 6th-graders, plus teach sophisticated science concepts to 7th- and 8th-graders,” said Susan Gore, TTU curriculum and instruction assistant professor and principal investigator of one grant. “If teachers don’t understand the concepts, how can they teach?” |
|
|
•News Tech launches new marketing campaign Bettoli and Ting share Caplenor Research Award Two grants total $2.6 million for STEM education, research Tech represented at French ceremony honoring Sgt. York Record enrollment breaks 10,000 mark More national recognition for Tech Electric car drives TTU’s launch to green power Clarksville plant reaps benefits of energy workshops |
||
|
Fewer U.S. students are coming out of high school ready to major and earn degrees in STEM disciplines, leaving this country behind several others in job competition. A push is being made nationally pique student interest in these subjects at an early age. Both projects will pay for teachers to travel to Tech for summer institutes and follow-up workshops. They’ll return to their schools with not only knowledge, but also free classroom materials and a model curriculum. Tech has established itself as a leader in math and science partnerships, where hundreds of teachers have learned more about teaching math and science through applied lessons. Those lessons have included making flashlights from toilet paper rolls, programming robots and hurling soccer balls — all in the name of making learning more fun and applicable to daily life. “Our success is based on our strong partnerships across campus and with school districts,” said Maggie Phelps, director of Tech’s Oakley STEM Center. “We also have put in place the mechanisms to sustain the projects and to collect and analyze the tremendous amounts of teacher and student data required for quality research.” Tech engineering professor Ken Hunter and Gore will lead training programs also designed as research projects to determine the impact of additional teacher training in the classroom. In Gore’s project, 50 5th-through-8th-grade middle school and special education teachers will be randomly assigned to an intervention group and 50 to a control group. In the three-year project, year one will focus on life science, year two on physical science and year three on earth/space science. TTU’s curriculum and instruction, biology, physics, earth sciences and chemistry departments, along with the Oakley STEM Center, support the project. Hunter will lead a partnership involving the Oakley STEM Center and the College of Engineering, Northeast State Technical Community College, University of Tennessee at Martin and dozens of 7th- through 12th- grade science, mathematics and career technical teachers. Fifteen teams of four teachers will participate in intensive summer institutes staffed by TTU, NTSCC, UTM and Vanderbilt University faculty. “With this structure, we’ve established support for the project in west, middle and east Tennessee so that teachers have support close to home when they need it,” said Hunter. Hunter explained his participants will create a preengineering certificate program to encourage students at an early age to enjoy and understand STEM subjects so that they will be more likely to choose a STEM-related major in college. |
||
 |