by Claire Miller
Ten faculty members from the College of Education’s Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology will be working to improve math and science education in the coming year, thanks to about $235,000 in grant funding from the Georgia Teacher Quality Higher Education Program.
Four MSIT faculty are serving as principal investigators and six MSIT faculty are serving as co-principal investigators on five projects that received Teacher Quality grants this year.
Georgia’s Teacher Quality Higher Education Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, awards Teacher Quality grants to projects dedicated to advancing math, science, language arts and social studies teaching in elementary, middle and high school settings.
MSIT faculty will be working on a wide range of projects within this framework, from using web tools in science education to encouraging collaboration among science and math teachers.
“I am very proud of our MSIT faculty whose Teacher Quality proposals were funded this year to support improvements in teacher quality and student achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education,” said Dana Fox, MSIT department chair. “Each proposal's focus is unique, but all of the proposals this year are focused in part on improving teacher quality in mathematics and science education.”
For more information about the Teacher Quality Higher Education Program, visit http://www.coe.uga.edu/teacherquality.
Teacher Quality grant projects
“Sci-berspace 2.0 Project: Using Web 2.0 Tools in 4th and 5th Grade Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum”
Principal Investigator: Laurie Brantley-Dias
Co-Principal Investigators: Erin Davis (Instructional Technology Specialist in Atlanta Public Schools and MSIT Ph.D. student in Instructional Technology) and Michael Dias (Kennesaw State University)
Amount funded: $33,356
“Enhancing Middle Level Mathematics Teachers’ Understanding of Proportional Reasoning Skills and Rational Number”
Principal Investigator: Iman Chahine
Co-Principal Investigators: Nermin Bayazit, Pier Junor Clarke, Stephanie Behm Cross, Christopher Jett and Mariana Montiel (GSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Amount funded: $48,921
“Supporting Science Talk through Forces, Food, and Photons”
Principal Investigator: Brett Criswell
Amount funded: $48,659
“Collaborative for Mathematics and Science Achievement”
Principal Investigator: Christine Thomas
Co-Principal Investigator: Kadir Demir
Amount funded: $58,874
“Preparing Georgia’s Middle School Science Teachers to Integrate Inquiry-based, Hands-on Research Modules in the Classroom”
Principal Investigator: Barbara Baumstark (GSU Department of Biology)
Co-Principal Investigators: Kadir Demir and Chandan Robbins (GSU Department of Biology)
Amount funded: $45,009
