static & dynamic molecular simulations

 

Math Science Project Partnership
of Greater Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

For details or questions, contact Victor Donnay, Professor
Bryn Mawr College, Department of Mathematics,
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
email: vdonnay@brynmawr.edu
phone: 610-526-5352 fax: 610-526-7469

Bryn Mawr College

Haverford College

Upcoming Projects

Ongoing Programs

 

 

The goal of the Mathematics and Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP) is to improve secondary mathematics and science, grades 6-12. Forty-six school districts and 13 institutions of higher education in eight Pennsylvania and four New Jersey counties in the region outside of Philadelphia have joined as the driving force behind this program. The structure of this program is designed to facilitate and grow partnerships between grades 6-12 teachers, and administrators, and faculty from higher educational institutions. Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges are Core Partners in this project, which has received a $12.5 million dollar, 5 year grant from the National Science Foundation.

In January 2005, the first cohort of 12 Higher Ed faculty from MSPGP colleges and universities began working with school teachers. More information.


Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006: 6th annual Tri-Co workshop on new pedagogical methods in math and science
This free, half-day workshop at Bryn Mawr College has a particular focus on action research and other methods of assessing how effective your teaching is. Faculty from a range of disciplines will share the ways in which they have implemented assessment techniques in their teaching. There will be a keynote address by George Bodner, Arthur Kelly Distinguished Professor of Chemical Education at Purdue University and recipient of the American Chemical Society Pimentel Award (2003) for outstanding contributions to chemical education. Please contact Victor Donnay or Catherine Riihimaki for more information.

As part of the MSPGP ,  Bryn Mawr and Haverford are undertaking a series of projects aimed at strengthening their pre-service teacher preparation program.  Projects undertaken during the 2004-05 academic year  included:

��      Pedagogy Seminar: Math and Science faculty from the two colleges are joining with high school math and science teachers from neighboring school districts to learn about new advances in math and science pedagogy as well as learning more about each others teaching cultures.   The seminar takes place in Rm. 336 of the Park Science Building at Bryn Mawr. For directions click here.

 

��       POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry): Haverford College Chemistry Professors Rob Scarrow and Terry Newirth are incorporating aspects student centered, guided inquiry into their  General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry   courses in fall 2004.

 

��      New Education Course:  Education program faculty members Dr. Jody Cohen and Dr. Alice Lesnick have developed a new course   Empowering Learners: Theory and Practice of Extra-Classroom Teaching to be taught in spring 2005.  Participants will learn how to work effectively with learners outside of a formal classroom setting and will get experience putting this theory into practice by working as a TA or lab assistant during the semester.

 

��      America  Counts tutoring program,  organized by the Bryn Mawr Community Service Office, in which which Bryn Mawr students tutored local elementary, middle, and high school students in mathematics.

 

��      In May 2005,  math and science faculty from Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore will participate in a day long retreat in which they will share experiences of new pedagocial strategies; what worked, what did not.

 

Additional projects were undertaken during year 1 (2003-20004) of the grant.

 

Recent Workshops:



  • Formative Assessment Workshop:
    As a follow up to the one day Faculty workshop at Haverford College in May 2005, the MSPGP sponsored a three day workshop with Dylan Wiliam on Assessment for Learning (also called Formative Assessment - everyday assessments of student learning so the teacher and student can adjust their approaches and hence better learn the material).

 

  • On Saturday, April 9th, 2005, there was a free, day long workshop (word file) at Franklin & Marshall College,
    "Science and Math Education for the 21st Century: Scholarship and Innovation"

 

  • Noted science educator Dr. Lawrence Lowery of the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley California, presented a series of workshops on inquiry learning in K-20 on Thursday October 28 and Friday Oct 29, 2004 at the Crowne Plaza in Valley Forge. Dr. Lowery is the designer of the FOSS science kits which are widely used in elementary and middle school. Participants learned about research on how learning takes place in the brain and the implications of this research for teaching. The workshops  provided an opportunity for higher ed faculty to build connections with pre-college teachers.

 

 

  • Dr. Eleanor Duckworth, Professor of Education at Harvard University and author of the book The Having of Wonderful Ideas" and Other Essays on Teaching and Learninggled a workshop on ���Understanding Understanding��� at  Bryn Mawr  on April 29, 2004.

 

  • In February 2004, Bryn Mawr hosted a workshop for science and math college and pre-college educators, 'Guided Inquiry in Science and Math: an alternative to lecturing'. This event was lead by Professor Rick Moog, Department of Chemistry, Franklin and Marshall College. He showed how high school and college level science and math courses, traditionally taught in a lecture format, can be taught instead by having students work in self-managed teams on guided inquiry activities - a method he calls POGIL. Professor Moog teaches his Freshman Chemistry course at Franklin and Marshall this way. Although the specific exercises that participants engaged in were drawn from general chemistry, the workshop was relevant and accessible to college and high school faculty in any area of math or science.

 

 

Upcoming projects include:

  • Disciplinary faculty to work with teachers (during academic year or during summer).
    • funding for 3 faculty per year
    • summer institutes
  • an annual speakers series of one-day faculty workshops on math/science pedagogy.
  • a graduate course in Mathematics Pedagogy
  • Community Math Teaching Project
  • the design of a summer undergraduate research program in math/science education

 

Ongoing Outreach Programs:

Cascade Mentoring Program, Haverford College: Philadelphia science high school teachers and high school students participate in an active research lab during the summer months. This program utilizes a "cascade mentoring" approach by creating a four-member team, consisting of a Haverford College faculty member, a Haverford College student, and the high school teacher/high school student pair (ideally from the same home school). This team works together on a specific research project, learning current scientific techniques and studying cutting-edge research problems.

Center for Science and Society, Bryn Mawr College: The goals of this center include facilitating broad conversations that involve scientists and non-scientists as well as academics and non-academics. Discussions explore the natural world and humanity's place in it, the nature of education, the generation, synthesis, and evaluation of information, technology and its potentials and the relationships among forms of creativity and understanding.

Howard Hughes Medical Insitute: The Institute is a nonprofit medical research organization that employs hundreds of leading biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields. In addition, through its grants program and other activities, HHMI is helping to enhance science education at all levels and maintain the vigor of biomedical science worldwide.

MAST, Haverford College: This program is a long-standing outreach program that provides laboratory experience and writing tutorials for 40-50 high school and middle school students from the Philadelphia area who are under-represented in the sciences. Haverford College students prepare the course curricula, devise and teach the scientific labs, and work one-on-one with high school and middle school students as tutors.

Summer Institutes for K-12 Teachers, Bryn Mawr College: Bryn Mawr faculty and K-12 educators share perspectives on how to enhance science and mathematics education thorughout the curriculum and at all levels of the educational enterprise.

  file for testing.


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Last update 5/2005