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STEM Faculty Team Wins ECU Award
2012 University Centennial Award for Excellence for "Spirit"
GREENVILLE, NC (May 3, 2012)
On April 25, 2012 Faculty, Staff and students were honored by a ceremony when East Carolina University celebrated its heritage with the annual Founders Day University Awards Celebration.
The Centennial Awards for Excellence were presented recognizing four areas: service, leadership, ambition and spirit.
Congratulations are in order for our very own Melanie Duffrin, Margaret Wirth and Mary Farwell for receiving the Centennial Award for Excellence for spirit!
Spirit here is defined as that sense of being that embodies an enthusiasm for the purpose, mission, and belief in the institution and that acts on that enthusiasm for the benefit of East Carolina.
The team works with passion and zeal every day to project the best aspects of the university's commitment to STEM education as a real presence in the region. Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students and community members have been impacted by the work of the "renewed" Center for STEM Education and the team's esprit de corps.
View the news article here.Once again we congratulate our STEM Faculty Team on a job well done.
Gates and Hewlett Foundation Fund Game Based Learning in Rural Eastern NC
East Carolina University and NC State Partner to Bring
Learning Innovations to Area Middle Schools
GREENVILLE, NC (June 16, 2011) —Today, Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) announced $7 million in grants to 19 innovative programs nationwide, including an exciting partnership between East Carolina University and NC State University to create and deploy intelligent game-based learning environments that leverage artificial intelligence to help students achieve competencies aligned with the Common Core State Standards – state approved guidelines that establish what students need to learn for success in college and in life.
The Center for STEM Education (formally CSMTE)at East Carolina University and the IntelliMedia Group at NC State University will partner to release a game named Crystal Island in rural middle schools throughout eastern North Carolina. Crystal Island is an intelligent game-based learning environment developed for middle grade students where students solve a science mystery as they learn about microbiology. To date, more than 1,000 students have used Crystal Island, and rigorous studies have demonstrated that it helps students achieve significant learning gains in both science and literacy.
For many students in rural eastern NC, the promise of new learning technologies cannot come too soon. The probability of completing high school for many young people is bleak, particularly for those from low-income families, and students of color. Nearly three out of every ten students in America today will not graduate high school. African-American, Hispanic, and low-income students face an even higher dropout rate of nearly 50 percent.
“We believe learning technologies and next generation models can produce transformative change at a lower cost for both teachers and students,” said Roger Conner, NGLC Director at East Carolina University. “Next Generation Learning Challenges is focused on supporting and bringing together innovators nationwide that can help foster adoption of the most promising approaches to dramatically increase the learning power of all of today’s students.”
Next Generation Learning Challenges is a multi-year program that will help address the challenges facing students, teachers, and schools in the U.S. from grades six to 12 through higher education. The initiative brings together an active community of innovators and educators committed to driving next generation learning forward to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the U.S. Nonprofit educational technology leader EDUCAUSE, leads the Next Generation Learning Challenges and the initiative is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Teachers Quest Through the Common Core
Summer Professional Development Session Prepares Teachers to be Math Survivors
GREENVILLE, NC (June 17, 2011) — Teachers from Beaufort, Pitt, and Hyde Counties will be embarking on a quest through the mathematics common core on June 20th through the 23rd, from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM, at an intensive professional development session designed by teachers, for teachers, at the Beaufort County Educational Technology Center located at 820 North Bridge Street in Washington, NC
The Center for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education , the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Instructional Technology Education, the Department of Mathematics, and Beaufort County Schools have partnered with 9 teacher leaders to create an innovative professional development program designed to enhance teacher’s knowledge of the common core in mathematics.
The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy. North Carolina is one of the states that has adopted the new National Common Core in Mathematics, which means many teachers will need to update their skill-sets to align with the new curriculum.
With funding provided by NC QUEST Cycle VIII, over 25 teachers will be able to participate in this intensive professional development session. Teachers will expedition through the topics of the Common Core, including Data and Measurement, Number, Algebra, and Geometry. They will learn how to navigate through multiple grade levels, traverse the land of technology, and come out prepared to conquer the next school year with materials that are ready to use.
Camp hopes to fuel science, math interest in STEM2 Girls
Apr. 6, 2011
More than 85 Pitt County middle school students were exposed to the fun side of science, technology, engineering, math and medicine on April 1. Making this day camp a little different: The participants were all girls.
The first STEM2 Girls Conference brought eighth-grade girls from 11 Pitt County schools to East Carolina University’s campus to encourage the girls to pursue advanced math and science courses during high school.
“Research has shown that up to sixth grade girls want to go into science and math, but then it plateaus in the seventh and eighth grade,” said Margaret Wirth, director of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education. “We’re trying to stop that curve.”
Wirth and others on the steering committee rounded up funding from the College of Education, College of Technology and Computer Science and the Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences to pay the approximate $2,800 cost of the one-day program. The ECU Office of Equity, Diversity and Community Relations and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund also supported the event.
Others on the Steering Committee are Evelyn Brown, engineering, College of Technology and Computer Science; Mary Farwell, biology; College of Arts & Sciences; Susan Ganter, mathematics education, College of Education; Leslie Pagliari, technology systems, College of Technology and Computer Science; and Cindy Putnam-Evans, biology, College of Arts & Sciences.
After arriving on campus and hearing a pep talk about career options, the girls went to lab stations that focused on the five areas emphasized in the camp – science, technology, engineering, math and medicine. At the math station, girls played Nim, a math game of strategy, and solved logic games. And at the medicine station, they touched human aorta and heart tissue.
Touching a heart made an impression on Katlyn Winfield of Grifton School, who listed it as one of her favorite activities of the day.
“I also really liked when we smashed cans at the engineering station. I want to go into engineering or chemistry so I liked those,” she said. At the engineering lab, the girls learned about different material properties and how those properties play a role in design, such as in a car body.
Mikayla Meeks of Bethel School said being able to see and touch an actual heart was her favorite activity of the day. Mikayla, who has been accepted into the Pitt County Schools Health Sciences Academy, said she wants to go into the medical field, either as a pediatric nurse or “be the person who goes with children into surgery to be their buddy.”
The tour of the ECU campus was impressive to Mattie Ocker of E.B. Aycock Middle. “It was exciting to see the buildings and everybody talking and walking around,” she said. “I really liked the engineering (station). We crushed a can and saw physics in action.”
The girls’ school counselors who accompanied them said they were impressed with something they observed during the day.
“We noticed during different sessions how much more engaged they were, to volunteer and take part. Of course, the subject matter was one they were really interested in. It was good for them to see the different possibilities and career options. And it was non-threatening because it was all girls,” said Lee Kearn, instructional coach at Wellcome Middle School.
Fellow chaperone Jane Shrader, a counselor at Pactolus School, added, “It’s been fabulous. The girls are relaxed and focused, no competition.”
After lunch at Todd Dining Hall, the girls gathered for a closing ceremony, which included putting their hands to work along with their brains with origami. Led by Ellen Hilgoe, associate director of N.C. Early Math Placement Testing Program, a state agency housed at ECU, the girls made origami boxes, which they filled with Smarties candy.
Hilgoe, a former high school math teacher, sneaked a little geometry into her directions for each step in the process: What do you know about a square? What kind of angle is this? Fold on the diagonal and now notice we now have four triangles in this square. What are they called?
She also encouraged the girls to challenge themselves in high school when choosing their math courses.
That message was repeated by Wirth as she dismissed the girls. “When you’re in high school, take the highest math and science class every year. Don’t be afraid of a challenge.”
This year the STEM2 Girls Conference was one day, but the steering committee plans to hold a summer camp in 2012 bringing girls to campus for a week. The group has received a Mathematics Association of America $6,000 Tensor grant to fund that project.
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