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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
Montana's STEP Students join the ACEPT Summer Workshop
Montana State University
Brenda Pippin, Northern MSU
Jennifer Heidema, MSU at Billings
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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
Our involvement with the Montana Systemic Teacher Excellence Preparation (STEP) project has provided Jenny and me numerous opportunities. By far, one of the most exciting has been traveling to Arizona as Research Experience Undergraduates (REU) and participating in the 1997 ACEPT summer workshop. During our time spent at ASU we have found many similarities between ACEPT and STEP.
STEP is the Montana equivalent of ACEPT. The STEP program, funded in 1993 by the National Science Foundation is intended to produce upscale changes in the Montana University System. These improvements are focused on training our undergraduate K-12 mathematics and science teachers. In addition, STEP is working to unite Montana's five state colleges/universities, seven tribal colleges, public/private elementary schools, state teacher associations, and other various grant program.
The STEP project goals are three-fold. The first is to use a team approach to redesign college level mathematics and science courses. ACEPT accomplishes this through their summer workshop series. STEP provides mini-workshops throughout the year for professional educators to meet and share ideas and information. The second goal is to provide early career support for first through fifth year teachers. The Early Career program is designed to provide new teachers with mentors who are willing to lend a hand (or an ear) whenever the need arises. Finally, STEP is attempting to design, implement, evaluate, and share new teaching methods using Montana's telecommunications network. An exciting aspect of this network is North Net. North Net is an interactive system using television to connect classrooms from Great Falls to Fort Peck, enabling professors from one university to teach students and faculty in rural schools and areas.
When we joined the 1997 ACEPT summer workshop, none of us (Brenda, Jenny, Amanda, and Rachel) really knew what to expect. Jenny and I expected the workshop to be more focused toward elementary education activities, where ideas would be shared among the participating educators. Realizing that our expectations were incorrect made each of us a little nervous, but the open friendliness of the workshop faculty eased our frustration even after joining them 1-1/2 weeks late. (Thanks for making us feel at home!).
Designing modules with educators from the state of Arizona and from Korea proved interesting. Although we had expected to be creating modules as elementary education majors, we were surprised to learn that our modules would be geared to university level courses. As the initial shock wore off, we looked forward to the challenges this presented. First, we had to relearn the basic physics and algebra principles. Working with the backgrounds of the faculty participants helped our faulty memories. Secondly, we were unfamiliar with the hand-held technology being used throughout the workshop. (In fact, neither Jenn nor I had ever used TI-83s, CBLs, or the probes prior to this workshop).
Brenda and Jennifer work with Jim Little, a science teacher from Rhodes Jr. High to understand the relationship between frequency and bar length on the handmade glockenspiel they built.
As a result of ACEPT, we feel that we have established a strong rapport with educators we can turn to when facing a dilemma or when we are in need of new ideas. Working with ACEPT gave us the chance to work with professional and pre-service educators (like ourselves). Meeting the ASU NSF scholars enabled us to compare educational systems from our states. The opportunity of seeing several perspectives when solving difficult problems helped open our eyes to how others grasp ideas and concepts. The modules we created can be adapted to different age levels. As elementary pre-service educators it is important to stay in tune with all the grade levels. Finally, according to Jenn, the technology she learned to use during the workshop provided an excellent way to spend money for her classroom.
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