K 12 Outreach In An Engineering Intensive University

Abstract

The Colorado School of Mines has been active in seeking and receiving educational grants from a variety of sources, such as the National Science Foundation, Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and the Colorado Department of Education. Over the past three years, four funded projects have focused on providing middle school teachers with instruction in mathematics, science, and engineering content and pedagogy. Careful attention has been given to coordinating these projects in a manner that maximizes their impact on the broadest population of teachers and students. A selection of summer workshops and classroom interventions has been developed and tested. Additionally, ten graduate teaching fellows, drawn from the Departments of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics, and Environmental Science, have been trained to provide direct support to middle school teachers and students during classroom instruction. These fellows have collaborated with participating teachers and faculty in preparing and implementing innovative, hands-on mathematics, science, and engineering curricula. This paper describes the coordination of the four outreach projects and the impact that these projects are having on the educational community.