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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
ACEPT Update
Susan WyckoffProject Director
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Newsletter Volume 2 |
Fall 1997 |
Science/mathematics education reforms have gained momentum in the state of Arizona. An Eisenhower-funded statewide Conference held in October focused on K-16 science/math reforms. The topics and the participants in the Conference demonstrated widespread interest among Arizona educators in science/math education reforms across institutions, disciplines, and grade levels. The Conference was hosted by Ray Buss and his colleagues, College of Education, Arizona State University West, and co-planned and organized by the Eisenhower Science/ Mathematics Advisory Council and ACEPT. We hope to continue these statewide conferences on an annual basis. The Conference program and abstracts are available at the ACEPT web site.
Arizona Board of Regents president-elect, Judy Gignac, has identified education, and teacher preparation in particular, as a key focus for her upcoming term of office. In September of this year she hosted an all-day conference in which ACEPT faculty participated with other science, mathematics and science/mathematics education faculty and administrators from the campuses of all three state universities (Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University). The conference addressed several majors issues regarding the preparation of future K-12 teachers in Arizona. ACEPT course and curriculum reforms continue to move forward on all fronts at Arizona State University, and at the Maricopa and Diné Colleges. Jeff Turley, high school science teacher, from the Mesa School District accepted an appointment as an ACEPT Teacher Liaison, replacing Roy Doyle who returned to teaching after spending a year with ACEPT as a Teacher Liaison. Jeff joins Lynn Spiller who will continue in her position as Teacher Liaison. These positions play pivotal roles in ACEPT, in that the Teacher Liaison's are key to improving the field experiences for our secondary science education students. During the past year Roy helped ACEPT faculty and the ASU College of Education in improving the field experiences of secondary education majors. Roy gives an account in this Newsletter of his successful strategies in introducing new teachers to the "real world".
ASU mascot, Sparky, gives ACEPT the high sign at the 1997 Student Orientation Experience.
This summer's 1997 Faculty Workshop focused on the integration of physics and mathematics, and the effective use of hand-held and computer technologies. The ACEPT courses targeted by this past summer's Workshop were college algebra and algebra-based physics courses taken by preservice K-8 teachers. Two students from the Montana Collaborative, STEP, participated in part of the Workshop, and report on their experiences in this Newsletter. Several faculty and students have also contributed articles to this newsletter describing their Workshop experiences. The modules produced by the Workshop participants are available on the web.
ACEPT co-PI, J.D. Mildrew, physics and mathematics, South Mountain Community College (SMCC), launched a new partnership with ASU science, mathematics and science/math education faculty to collaborate with the SMCC Dynamic Learning Center (DLC) to support and mentor first and second year students interested in becoming teachers. The objective of the DLC is to provide advice and mentoring to SMCC students to insure a smooth transition from SMCC to ASU's College of Education.
ACEPT continues to play an active role in the Arizona Systemic Collaborative (ASC). The ASC is a group of NSF-funded project and community-based organization leaders who meet monthly to address science/math/engineering/ technology education reform issues common to these projects. Through the ASC faculty, teachers, administrators, and corporate and industrial partners network, exchange information, and collaborate in optimizing the efforts and resources affecting science/math reforms.
Since the Arizona Science Center began operations in its new building in downtown Phoenix in March, attendance has increased by a factor of 40, and is projected to reach an attendance level of half a million during the first year. The Center is raising informal science education to new standards with its emphasis on high quality inquiry- oriented science, centered on the national science standards. Blake Parks reports in this Newsletter on his experience as an ACEPT summer intern at the Arizona Science Center. Blake is an ACEPT NSF Scholar just completing his degree and certification in early childhood education.
In July Navajo Community College officially changed its name to Diné College (pronounced dinn-eh) to reflect the true Navajo culture. The term "navajo" is not of Native American origin, but has had wide usage. Diné, a word commonly used in the Navajo language means "of the people". In this Newsletter Dan McLaughlin, ACEPT Co-PI and Diné College Education Specialist at the Tsaile campus, describes the new Diné Teacher Education program. Steve Semken, geologist at the Diné College Shiprock campus, describes the development of the Diné College version of the cross-disciplinary course, Patterns in Nature.
We commend Steve Reynolds, ASU geologist and ACEPT Co-PI, for receiving ASU's first Outstanding Teacher of the month award, and recommend that you check out his extensive and useful website that he has developed for his ACEPT reformed course.
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