$2.7M grant to expand science, math outreach Shodor Foundation will hire college interns to do technical work for college faculty training

A $2.7 million federal grant will give a local nonprofit organization more opportunities to improve science and math instruction for students throughout North Carolina and the nation.

The Shodor Education Foundation has received a National Science Foundation grant to offer workshops for college faculty throughout the state and the country designed to enhance the pool of American scientists, engineers and K-12 science teachers.

At least $30,000 of the grant will go toward hiring area university and community college students to develop computer software for courses, produce Web site graphics and provide technical assistance, said Bob Panoff, president and executive director of the foundation.

"The interns will be from N.C. State, N.C. Central, UNC, Duke, Durham Tech, and certainly other students are eligible to apply," he said. "We're definitely using a lot of local college and some high school students ... we could use twice as many students as we have now."

Founded in 1994, the independent nonprofit corporation based in Durham specializes in creating computerized courses for teaching science and math to elementary school through college students. The foundation now operates 10 educational outreach projects that include workshops and internships.

The grant, funded over a three-year period, will allow Shodor to sponsor up to 18 weeklong workshops for college faculty across the country, including North Carolina. The workshops are in "computation science," which is the use of computers to research science, math or other subjects. The foundation plans to hold two faculty sessions this summer at Appalachian State University in Boone. Future workshops likely will take place at area universities and colleges, Panoff said.

Courses will focus on reaching faculty at small and predominately minority four-year institutions as well as community colleges. Those who participate will receive a small stipend, software and lesson plans.

"The vast majority of graduate students start at small colleges," Panoff said. "If we want to have an impact on who's going to become the next scientists and engineers, we need to focus on these schools."

The foundation has found that helping students visualize scientific analyses and math equations through computer graphics and interactive components makes the subjects more engaging, particularly to female and minority students.

"We have tremendous success when we focus on the use of computers to study science, because of what that computer power enables you to do, to visualize what's happening," Panoff said. "[Students] are able to use the technology to master the material."

Jonathan Keohane, a physics instructor at the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, a public, residential high school in Durham, will spend time this summer helping Shodor create an astrophysics course for the project. The foundation regularly accepts Science and Math students as interns and has provided free instruction to Keohane's students, he said.

Shodor is well known nationally for its computer-based instruction, despite the low profile it keeps in Durham, Keohane said. Working on the project will only strengthen the collaboration between the school and the foundation, as well as improve Keohane's teaching, he said.

"As we develop these techniques, I will learn through the process," he said. "Then, hopefully, I will be able to include [them] into a combination of my instruction at science and math and independent projects my students will encounter."

Shodor will operate the grant project in partnership with several organizations, companies and institutions, among them the National Computation Science Education Consortium, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Appalachian State University, the University of Illinois and supercomputing centers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

On the Net:
http://www.shodor.org