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Faculty Expertise to Benefit Middle Schools
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September 25, 2003 -- Michigan Technological University faculty will take their skills to middle school classrooms as part of a program to develop science-based environmental curriculum materials.
The university is part of a $118,302 grant awarded to the Western U.P. Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education. The center is a partnership of Michigan Tech and both the Copper Country and Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School Districts.
With the award, funded by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the Western U.P. Center will develop three curriculum units: energy and resources, ecosystems, and water quality. The grant includes funds for developing and piloting the units in classrooms statewide, and developing interactive web-based activities.
The Western U.P. Center staff will draw on Michigan Tech faculty scientific and research expertise to write the environmental units. Center staff regularly conduct professional development programs for K-12 teachers and design after-school science classes and ecology field trips for K-12 students.
"We are very pleased with the Western U.P. Center's proposal to establish a collaborative approach to the curriculum development process---bringing Michigan Technological University faculty together with a team of Michigan's teachers to develop the curriculum," said Thomas Occhipinti, environmental education coordinator at the DEQ.
The DEQ is also funding development of one middle school curriculum unit by Western Michigan University and one by Grand Valley State University. Central Michigan University will coordinate dissemination of all five units to more than 3,000 teachers statewide.
Michigan Tech (www.mtu.edu) is ranked among the top 50 public universities in the country by U.S. News and World Report. The university has one of the largest engineering programs in the country and offers quality programs in the sciences, business, communications, and forestry and environmental sciences.
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