Lehigh University is partnering with middle and high schools in the Allentown and Bethlehem Area School Districts in the Lehigh Valley, industry experts from Air Products and Chemicals, Agere Systems, Insaco, Inc. and the Discovery Center for Science and Technology Pennsylvania on "A Lehigh Valley Partnership to Enhance STEM Education Through G4-12 Teaching Fellows." The involvement of industry and the Discovery Center is novel and evidence of the project's intellectual merit. This project builds upon established outreach programs at Lehigh and will continue to enhance the educational experience of students in Lehigh Valley schools by placing graduate and advanced undergraduate Teaching Fellows in STEM classrooms and establishing STEM outreach teams. Teaching Fellows are helping grade 4-12 teachers introduce inquiry-based learning and use multimedia, wireless and other innovative technologies in local classrooms. Outreach teams consisting of Fellows, Lehigh faculty and industry experts are training and exchanging ideas with STEM teachers and administrators from the two schools districts. The great diversity within the school districts served promise broad impacts from these activities. This project is partially supported by funds from the Directorate for Engineering and from the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
Title of Project: A Lehigh Valley Partnership to Enhance STEM Education through G4-12 Teaching Fellows Institution: Lehigh University PI/Co-PI: William M. Pottenger, Glenn D. Blank, Horace Moo-Young, Henry U. Odi, Michael J. Schulte (all from Lehigh University) Partner School District: Allentown and Bethlehem Public School Districts Funding: $1,223,068 # of Fellows/year: 6 Graduate Fellows and 6 Undergraduate Fellows Target Audience: Middle and High School (grades vary based on discipline) Setting: Urban Disciplines: Computer Science, Information Technology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science and Mathematics
