GCSC receives $250,000 STEM education grant

Friday, June 17, 2016
Courtesy photo The 2016 Summer Institute Group assembles after a recent STEM Learning Collaborative Workshop with 1959 DePauw graduate and astronaut Joe Allen. Front row (from left): Jenny Riggle, Courtney Dickey, Amy Howard, Chelle Hendershot, Kim Whited, Amy Weliever and Brooke Lewis. Second row (from left): Angela Weeks, Lisa Cupp, Kelli Croan, Erin Gilpatrick, Elena Wilson, Beva Miller, Jennifer Miller, Stacie Stoffregen. Third row (from left): John Nees, Joanna Muncie, Brad Kingma, Jane Roberson, Logan Kuhne, Khristen Phillips, Amy Robinson, Cami Hopper and Sharon Crary.

The Greencastle Community School Corporation is now a recent recipient of a Math and Science Partnership grant from the Indiana Department of Education titled.

Stacie Stoffregen, science department chairman at Greencastle Middle School; Khristen Phillips, chemistry teacher and department chairman; Sharon Crary, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at DePauw University; and Jeff Hubble, assistant superintendent of Greencastle Schools, worked to earn the $250,000 grant that will span three school years.

The grant targets professional development of all GCSC teachers in the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering and math. Teachers from kindergarten through high school are partnered with DePauw science professors for a deep learning experience to enhance their STEM content-knowledge and developing new lessons for engaging students in inquiry-driven science.

Teachers experienced a two-week, intensive-learning experience during the first two weeks of June at the Percy Julian Science Building on DePauw's campus with outdoor experiences at the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, located south of Greencastle.

Teachers created plans for lessons and experiments that they will be implementing as a part of their classes in the 2016-17 school year. During the two-week workshop, the teachers mixed with teachers from other GCSC buildings and engaged in a discussion of STEM standards that span all grade levels. Teachers worked to intentionally spiral standards so that each time a student encounters a standard throughout their 13 years in school the concept gets deeper and their mastery grows.

One example of these spiraling standards includes the theme of physics and engineering of boats. Each grade level developed lessons that engage students in testing materials, making a plan and developing a prototype boat to test and modify.

At the primary level, the teachers developed an interdisciplinary lesson where the students' boat needs to float as part of their Thanksgiving lesson about the Mayflower. At Tzouanakis Intermediate School, the challenge will become the building and floating of model boats that can support ever increasing weight. At Greencastle Middle School, students will engineer solar boats to compete in a regatta. And, finally, at Greencastle High School, students may have to build and launch a boat that can make it across a pool with people in it.

The possibilities are as endless as a teacher's imagination. The alignment of the concepts will strengthen each student's depth of knowledge and mastery of application. It brings STEM to life.

In addition to the summer institutes, teachers will receive ongoing professional development and collaborative-planning time across buildings and in conjunction with DePauw faculty members during the school year.

DePauw professors who taught workshop sessions were Dave Berque, Howard Brooks, John Caraher, Sharon Crary, Dan Gurnon, Jacob Hale, Joe Heithaus, Rich Martoglio, Marnie McInnis, Dave Roberts and Jamie Stockton. Mark Evans and Amy Beadles of the Purdue Extension Office led a session to Big Walnut Creek to engage teachers in Riverwatch.

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