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 School
children are not the only ones enjoying various camps at California
State University, Fresno this summer. Teachers are learning at the
two-week Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Leadership Institute.
Thirty-six elementary and middle school teachers from Fresno, Madera and
Kings counties are building robots, analyzing how things work and
enhancing their math and science instructional skills at the institute,
which ends Friday, July 17.
The institute is a collaboration among the San Joaquin Valley
Mathematics Project, Central Valley Science Project and Fresno State’s
Lyles College of Engineering.
Faculty from the Kremen School of Education and Human Development,
College of Science and Mathematics and the Lyles College at Fresno State
and members of the project leadership teams have been involved in the
planning and delivery of the institute.
Dr. Gregory Krien, the Fresno State electrical and computer engineering
faculty member who leads the robotics portion of the institute, says,
"Many teachers are experiencing for the first time how math and science
education can be linked together in an exciting and innovative way that
is also tied to engineering design."
One of those teachers learning at the institute is middle school
instructor Heidi Harris, who said, “It’s fun applying math and science
to applications like technology and engineering. My students would love
working with these robots and there is so much I can do with them.”
At the conclusion of the Institute, each participating teacher will
receive a LEGO Mindstorms NXT Robotics kit for use in the classroom.
Follow-up workshops during the 2009-10 academic year will build upon the
institute's theme of "teaching and learning mathematics and science
through applications."
More information, contact Karen Arth at
karth@csufresno.edu, Carol Fry
Bohlin at carolb@csufresno.edu,
Jim Marshall at
jamesm@csufresno.edu or Ram Nunna at
rnunna@csufresno.edu.
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