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Project Newsletter
Issue 1
December 2006
In this issue:
First Advisory Board
Meeting
Friday, November 17, 2006 8:30 a.m. – 1:00
p.m.
Present: Paul Kauffmann (PI), Dana Espinosa
(Co-PI), Cathy Hall (Co-PI), Gail Ratcliff (Co-PI), Mark
L’Esperance (Director, Building Hope Community Center),
Ethan Lenker (Superintendent, Jones County Schools), Pam
Christy Wuebbells (CoPI and Advanced Mathematics Teacher,
Fike High School, Wilson County), Kathy Spencer (Assistant
Superintendent, Onslow County Schools), Dora Jernigan (Math
and Science Coordinator, Duplin County Schools), Susan Jones
(Principal, Greene Central High School), and Patricia
MacNeill (Assistant Superintendent Greene County Schools).
The goal of the initial meeting was to inform
leadership of participating school systems about grant
details, build collaborative team and solicit input, and
solidify plans/next steps.
The Advisory Board if ITEST Grant met for the
first time on Friday, November 17, 2006. This meeting
provided the opportunity for grant members to meet with
school representatives and begin the process of reviewing
the scope of the grant and activities. East Carolina and the
participating schools are committed to developing and
implementing applied science and mathematics based
activities that serve to enhance:
-student centered learning,
-student collaboration in the learning
process,
-teachers in the role of coaches and mentors,
-professional collaboration among educators
to develop and deliver materials,
-assessment of student learning, and
-program effectiveness.
The organization of the steering committee
was determined to be as follows:
-Grant PI -Co-PI
-Science/Math/Instruction leadership for
county high school
-Representative group of math/science
teachers
-Representative from Building Hope Community
Center
-Faculty representative from Academy team
instructors
Duties assigned to the Advisory Team include
meeting quarterly to review:
-implementation, management and evaluation of
the grant,
-selection of teachers and students to attend
Academy,
-recommend approaches to publicize and expand
program.
Topics of discussion at the meeting focused
on identifying schools and teachers who would be part of the
first academy in the summer of 2007. As per the grant, we
would need 10 high schools, 30 faculty/counselors, and 60
students identified as participants in Academy 2007. Over
the course of the grant, we need 20 high schools, 60
faculty/counselors, and 180 students.
Proposed teacher recruitment strategies were
reviewed. The recruitment strategies included current
participating counties identifying high school priorities,
information sheets describing program and commitment being
distributed to potential participants, and members of the
steering team communicating and recruiting
teachers/counselors. Once the teachers/counselors have been
selected, they would then become involved in the recruitment
of students based on economic need.
The orientation seminar for selected
teachers/counselors will be held in Greenville in the early
spring. The curricular goal for ITAT is to develop fun,
flexible, and challenging hands on exercises that develop
skills to translate physical and mathematical concepts in a
real context. During the ITAT, teachers/counselors work
together to develop prototype lesson plans, learn background
and tests materials, and then test these prototypes on
students during ITES. The educators will integrated lesson
plans developed for:
Robotics explorations (robot kits and
microprocessors)
Biomechanics (videos and analytical data)
Software (MathCad, MatLab, Excel)
The organization and timing of Academy was
discussed and options were presented:
Educators: June 18-29 or July 9-20
Students: July 16-August 3
As part of this discussion, options were
explored for transportation issues including weekends and
how this would be handled for students. It was felt that
most of educators would prefer to commute from home during
their portion of Academy.
The team also discussed how to effectively
involve parents in the process. The initial guidelines in
the grant called for student presentation of skills learned
through Academy via robotics on the last day of ITES Academy
to a group that would include parents. After discussion, it
was felt that a better way to include parents might be to
schedule on-site visits at each of participating schools
thereby providing easier access and also involving more
students/parents/educators in understanding the purpose of
the Academy.
The last topic of discussion involved
assessment issues related to the grant. The grant specified
specific areas that would show “improvement” and discussion
centered around how best to evaluate these areas.
Click
here for some photos of this meeting.
Robotics
Competition at ECU
Students
in ECU's Engineering Department have just finished
their Fall robot competition. Click the link below to view the Daily
Reflector (Greenville, NC) article.
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Pitt County Memorial Hospital Gets
New da
Vinci Surgical Robot
Dr. Randolph Chitwood (ECU) participated in the unveiling of
the newest surgical robot at PCMH. Click the link
below to view the Daily Reflector (Greenville, NC) article.
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