UO science outreach program heads into Hermiston & Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District

EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 13, 2008) -- A University of Oregon science outreach program for students in kindergarten through high school that began with small steps in Lane County leaps next fall into the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District (UMESD) under a newly awarded $3 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dean Livelybrooks, principal investigator of five-year NSF grant for science outreach into the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District.

Beginning in June, the program will be introduced to some 60 teachers of the Hermiston School District in special workshops. The teachers will see the types of teaching materials that will be made available and meet participating doctoral students from the UO's chemistry and physics departments. The program will expand into many of the 12 school districts served by the UMESD.

The Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education Program (GK-12) is administered by the UO Materials Science Institute. Under the program, UO participants will adapt a variety of hands-on science-teaching kits based on materials initially developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. The inquiry-driven kits include curricula about magnets and motors, chemical changes, time measurement and electrical circuits. The kits will be housed at the UMESD office in Pendleton. Teachers will be able to check out the materials as needed.

"Our part of this grant allows us to provide professional development for the teachers for their classrooms," said Anae Rosenberg, director of the GK-12 Science Outreach Program. "This form of embedded professional developed has been proved to be incredibly effective. The teachers can be stars using the kits. Kids are exposed to a real-live scientist. Our graduate students learn communication skills on getting science across to the public. If you can explain science to a second-grader, you can explain science to just about anybody."

In addition to a focus on science, the kits will integrate materials that will help teachers enhance reading, language arts and mathematics, Rosenberg said.

UO's doctoral students, who are supported by NSF fellowships, will spend two weeks per term doing outreach in schools, working with both teachers and students.

"The grant allows for several innovative components for our schools," said Mark Mulvihill, former deputy superintendent of the Hermiston school district who recently was selected as the new superintendent of the UMESD. "Each of the five Hermiston elementary schools will participate. Two doctoral residents will work with each school. We plan to develop them as 'coaches' in the school, providing hands-on support for teachers to increase their confidence in the teaching of inquiry-based science."

The hands-on kits developed at the UO will replace the usual state-adoption material cycle that is now scheduled for the 2009-10 school year, Mulvihill said. "This project will likely expand to other eastern Oregon districts. We plan to coordinate with them through the Umatilla-Morrow ESD. It is truly a collaborative project."

The NSF grant serves as a core, said Dean Livelybrooks, the UO's principal investigator on the award. "With it and additional support from the state and industry, we will be able to reach every school within the Umatilla-Morrow ESD in the five-year period."

"We are obviously very excited at the benefit this program brings to Oregon, K-8 school teachers and children, and, of course, our graduate students," said Livelybrooks, a tenured senior instructor of physics who specializes in geophysics and science education and outreach.

The UO's GK-12 Program began in 2003 and has evolved from its origins under separate, since-expired grants from state of Oregon and the NSF. The program began serving schools in the Lane County ESD, mostly west of the Cascades, and then expanded eastward into schools served by the High Desert ESD. Since 2003, the program has served 36 schools in 14 school districts.

Co-principal investigators on the grant are David Johnson (chemistry), Catherine Page (chemistry) and Raghuveer Parthasarathy (physics).

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of 62 of the leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. Membership in the AAU is by invitation only. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.

Contact: Jim Barlow, 541-346-3481, jebarlow@uoregon.edu

Sources: Anae Rosenberg, GK-12 program director, 541-346-4762, anae@uoregon.edu; Dean Livelybrooks, 541-346-5855, dlivelyb@uoregon.edu