Project Overview

This project, funded for three years by the National Science Foundation in 2003, supports a cooperative project by The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology, which is a relatively new high school serving grades 9-12 in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Schools. The primary purpose of the project is to make available the knowledge and expertise of graduate students at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte to support, enhance and enrich the teaching of science, mathematics, computer technology, and engineering in courses at The Phillip O.Berry Academy of Technology. Through the project, a total of ten masters and doctoral students in these disciplines are paired each year with high school teachers in these disciplinary areas. Students devote at least 15 hours per week to the project, which includes 10 hours that must be spent working on site in classrooms at the school with the teachers with whom they are paired.

Project Objectives

• To prepare a select group of graduate students in the latest techniques and strategies of teaching science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering;
• To enhance the teaching and learning of science, mathematics, computer science and engineering at the high school level;
  
• To team GK-12 Fellows with teachers from Berry Academy of Technology and assist in introducing technology-based hand-on projects to students;
• To prepare teachers for teaching science through inquiry practices and the latest curriculum in mathematics;
  
• To provide high school students with positive graduate student role models in science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering; and
• To enhance the communication and teaching skills of K-12 Fellows so that they may be more effective school volunteers and/or teachers in secondary schools or higher education after completing their graduate study.