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Project Overview
UC's Track 2 Project STEP selects five Graduate Fellows each year. Each Fellow interacts with one school and four teachers within the school that teach math and/or science. Each Fellow is involved in the urban classrooms for a minimum of 10 hours a week, and each Fellow spends approximately 10 hours a week preparing for the in-school experience. This 20 hour a week schedule is kept by the Fellows for the entire academic school year. During the course of the school year Fellows create and implement five major lessons/projects/modules for the classrooms. Fellows, STEP teachers (including the school coordinator), PI's, and grant coordinator meet on a regular basis to evaluate and facilitate the implementation of the Fellows activities in the classroom.
Track 2 Project STEP will: "Train Fellows who develop, implement, and assess
activities that improve STEM skills of secondary teachers hand high school
students to enhance and strengthen student interest in STEM using engineering
design as a context for authentic learning." This includes a community of
learners in both the institution of higher education and K-12 school system,
professional organizations, and private corporations.
Track 1 Project STEP primarily focused on training the Fellows to become proficient
in teaching math and science using authentic practices, Track 2 Project STEP will
further address state-o-the-art developments in cognitive science.
Track 2 Project STEP includes facilitating and reinforcing learning through thematically challenging and advanced STEM topics that explicitly connect key concepts of the problems of a city (called "STEMcinnati") across grades 9-12. Fellows will work with a cohort of math and science teachers who collectively teach a group of students that move from one grade to the next. The integration of social issues will show how changing technologies impact an urban environment. The city focus enables a learner-centered environment that matches students' understandings of their surroundings with the introduction of new fundamental knowledge. Fellows will use the engineering design of the components of a city to link basic STEM skills and social awareness in student lives. These strategies will improve comprehension and the application of knowledge to new scenarios.
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