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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
ACEPT Update
Susan WyckoffProject Director
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Newsletter Volume 3 |
Spring 1999 |
ACEPT achieved three important milestones this year. Arizona State University established a new Center for science, mathematics, engineering and technology education and selected its first director, Don Evans, present Director of the ASU Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and professor of Mechanical/ Aerospace Engineering. The new Center, tentatively named the Southwest Center for Educational Research and Development in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology, will institutionalize ACEPT by perpetuating its reforms and fostering continued collaboration across departments, colleges, and institutions. Faculty from ACEPT, the NSF Engineering Foundation Coalition, and the Harvard Hughes Medical Institute program, among others, worked with university administrators to define the goals, mission and scope of the new Center. ACEPT faculty are pleased that Don Evans will lead the new Center, and look forward to an expanded and productive continuation of our collaboration.
A second ACEPT milestone was marked by the creation of a new charter middle school focused on learning mathematics and science, called the Arizona Education Association (AEA) Charter Middle School Academy. The charter school will institutionalize ACEPTs innovative post-baccalaureate middle school program, Teacher Education for Math and Science (TEAMS). ACEPT ASU faculty and administrators partnered with the Maricopa School District and the Arizona Education Association to create the new charter school which wil open in fall 1999. Graduation of the first baccalaureate class from the new four-year Diné Teacher Education Program at Diné College, formerly Navajo Community College, constituted the third milestone achieved by the Arizona Collaborative. The graduation of the first cohort of students from this new bi-lingual program occurred on the 30th anniversary of the founding of Diné College. Seven of the eight students in the graduating class were NSF ACEPT Scholars.
New connections between two-year colleges and four-year teacher preparation programs were further supported by ACEPT through the Dynamic Learning Group (DLG) at South Mountain Community College (SMCC). A group of humanities and science/math faculty at SMCC created a program and a collaboration with ASUs College of Education to recruit, mentor, support and prepare community college students who wish to enter the teaching profession. The hallmark of the DLG is a team of dedicated faculty who have developed an integrated approach to interactive, inquiry-oriented research-based learning. ACEPT Co-PI, J. D. Mildrew, is a member of the DLG and SMCC professor of math and physics. He has led ACEPT Faculty Workshops and established a leadership role in the Phoenix area through his outstanding inquiry-oriented physics and math instruction, and effective, seamless integration of Calculator Based Laboratories (CBLs)and Micro computer Based Laboratories (MBLs).
ACEPTs science/math reform efforts extend throughout the calendar year. The summer Workshops have reached over 100 ASU, Din and Maricopa Community College faculty. Workshops during 1998 included Multimedia Chemistry, led by ASU professor of chemistry, Jim Birk, Secondary Mathematics Education, led by ASU professor of mathematics, Marilyn Carlson, and Beginning Teacher Support in Science and Math, led by Eugene Judson, teacher Brimhall Jr. High School, and Jeff Turley, ACEPT Teacher Liaison. Four ACEPT Workshops planned for the summer of 1999 will concentrate on inquiry oriented teaching of biology, geology, mathematics/ physics/technology, and inquiry science for beginning teachers. Now in its fourth year, ACEPT is making a smooth transition into a permanent, enduring entity in Arizona. An ACEPT-prepared teacher (see box) constituted the original goal of the founding ACEPT faculty who initiated the original collaborative, and remains the overriding goal of the new ASU Center, the new charter AEA Academy and the new Din Teacher Education Program.
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