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Dusting off the sciences

A SELF-DESCRIBED "PSEUDO-RETIRED" professor who "collects a pension but works sixty hours a week," physicist Morton Sternheim had never in his many years of teaching walked into a workshop where the participants were all on the floor pondering "manipulatives."

But then, for Sternheim and the hundreds of other professors, schoolteachers, college students, and K-through-12 kids who've participated in a mammoth educational outreach program called STEMTEC, the unexpected has been a common denominator.

The acronym STEMTEC, so satisfyingly suggestive of both biology and invention, stands for "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teacher Education Collaborative." The five-year project links eight local campuses the Five Colleges and three local community colleges with seven area school districts. Based in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UMass, it's one of fourteen similar initiatives across the country, and is funded by a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Now in its second year, STEMTEC 's goal is more and better teachers of science and math in the elementary and secondary schools. Its strategy is to bring professors and teachers together to brainstorm ideas for making science and math instruction more challenging and fun. The idea is that if children actually enjoy, instead of just enduring, these classes, they'll learn more. (As is often noted, American students lag well behind those in other countries on standardized science and math tests.)

But that's just the beginning of the STEMTEC equation. With large numbers of veteran teachers retiring and fewer students choosing to go into teaching, Massachusetts has already begun to face a teacher shortage that is expected to get much worse within a few years. At the same time, the cadre of students beginning to be turned off by science and math in high school, when the subject matter becomes more dense and, traditionally, drier, continues to grow during the college years. Close to half of all students who start out as science and math majors switch to other fields before graduation. By improving college-level science and math courses and encouraging the students in them to consider teaching STEMTEC aims to confront both student defections and the shortage of teachers in these fields.

Thus, Sternheim, one of STEMTEC 's five principal investigators, found himself in a roomful of professionals "stretched out on carpets" discussing manipulatives, or physical teaching aids. Among them were professors and teachers from colleges and schools around the area who probably never would have met otherwise. "That's another thing that caught me by surprise," Sternheim says. "Getting to know these folks from the community colleges they're some of the best teachers around!"

Generally speaking, the K-12 teachers are the pedagogy experts at the workshops that are an essential component of STEMTEC . It's the schoolteachers, in large part, who've introduced the professors to more ground-level, interactive approaches to teaching. UMass chemistry professor Julian Tyson says he'd never so clearly defined his goals for experiments performed in class as he has since observing the schoolteachers in action. STEMTEC special projects director Susan Newton says many of the college classes she's observed look like anything but traditional lecture halls now: "Circles of people facing one another" has become more of a norm.

The professors, in turn, are often the "content experts" in this exhange, the ones with the up-to-the-date knowledge of rigorous disciplines. Both teachers and profs say the mix is beneficial. Roger Wallace `79G already a fairly legendary sixth-grade teacher at the Fort River School in Amherst, but in his own mind "more of a liberal arts-type" says STEMTEC has given him newfound confidence as a science teacher.

IN THE AFTERMATH of the workshops it's college students who provide the continuing link between professors and teachers, scientists and schoolchildren, colleges and the community. Participating college professors involve their students by including a practical teaching component in their introductory-level science and math courses something Tyson said he never imagined would be a part of Chemistry 312.

The more than 100 profs who've participated in STEMTEC so far have each found a way to get their students off-campus and teaching. UMass physics professor Kandula Sastry had his students go into area neighborhoods to help homeowners test for radon. Tyson and others have directed their classes to "the classifieds" on STEMTEC 's web site, where teachers post descriptions of collaborations they envision. Tyson's thirty-three Chem 312 students were instructed to find a teacher who was looking for help, and enlist. "They all rose to the occasion," Tyson says. "Most went two or three times."

Heather Makes `99G, whose bachelor's degree is in biology and who completed a master's in education this spring, says she pretty much always knew she wanted to teach. The chance to start a compost heap with a bunch of seventh-graders only confirmed her decision. (Never mind that the first attempt got swept up accidently by the school janitor. "So they had to build it again," shrugs Tyson.) Makes said in June that to her mind, "Being a teacher is one of the most empowering jobs there is." And yet, she added, "None of my teachers had ever impressed upon me that I should become a teacher."

That is precisely the state of affairs that STEMTEC aims to turn around. Is it working? Tyson, who early this summer was working on a report for a follow-up series of workshops, says that from his perspective, "the biggest bonus is that students enjoyed my class more." With a single exception, his students were "uniformly enthusiastic" about the teaching experience he'd incorporated into the course, and several have told him they're seriously considering becoming teachers.

Sternheim is also pleased with the impact of STEMTEC so far. Even if these early converts don't end up facing a classroom, he says, they're part of a saluatary movement toward making science and math more engaging. Besides, the pseudo-retiree recently observed, to learn biology better "surely can't do you any harm."

Mary Carey

 The Land-grant Idea in NSM

 Dean Linda Slakey affectionately refers to STEMTEC, the behemoth educational project described in the story opposite, as "The Gorilla" of outreach efforts in her college. The size, stretch, and public profile of that popular program are evoked by her zoological metaphor. But the dean notes that STEMTEC is only the most recent manifestation of cooperation between NSM and K-12 teachers and schools. (UMass Science Days, for instance, bring a thousand high school students a year to the campus.) "As society becomes more and more technological, it's more and more important that everyone learns science and everyone believes they can understand it," says Slakey.

A second fertile region of interaction between campus and society is collaboration with industry. Especially at a modern land-grant university, there's no hard-and-fast line between basic and applied research. The collaboration is not only a matter of grants bringing corporate or industrial or governmental funds onto campus. It's also a matter of alliances and consortiums which, often enough, bring outside partners in, and send students and faculty out, in exchanges of resources and expertise that benefit all parties.

This is obvious in such commercially potent areas as polymer and computer sciences. But, again, in the modern age little if any scientific inquiry is utterly remote from possible application. And that is fine with Slakey. "The relationships we cultivate are those where we have overlapping interests," she says. "The partnerships are ones that move the business partner toward applied goals at the same time that we move forward in scientific knowledge."

- Patricia Wright

 

 Natural Sciences and Mathematics:

astronomy / biochemistry and molecular biology / molecular and cellular biology / biology / chemistry / chemical sciences / computer science / geosciences / mathematics and statistics / neuroscience and behavior / organismic and evolutionary biology / physics / plant biology / polymer science and engineering / pre-medical and pre-dental

EDUCATION
· $153,470 grant, U.S. Department of Education, Mary Lynn Boscardin, student development and pupil personnel services, Preston Green, educational policy, research and administration
· National Film Registry nomination, Liane Brandon, teacher education and curriculum studies.
· $280,160 grant, Microsoft Corporation, Ronald Hambleton and Stephen Sireci, educational policy, research and administration.
· SOE Outstanding Teacher Award (posthumous), David Kinsey, educational policy, research, and administration.
· Distinguished Academic Outreach Award, David Schimmel, educational policy, research and administration.

ENGINEERING
· COE Outstanding Teacher Award, Keith Carver, electrical and computer engineering.
· $300,000 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, David Kazmer, mechanical and industrial engineering.

FOOD AND NATURAL RESOURCES
· Allied Academies Distinguished Research Award, M.J. Alhabeeb, consumer studies.
· CFNR Outstanding Outreach Award, Wesley Autio, plant and soil sciences.
· CFNR Certificate for Excellence in Teaching, Thomas Boyle, plant and soil science
· Chair, Higher Education Research Task Force, Association of Thai Professionals in America and Canada; CFNR Outstanding Advisor Award; Pavinee Chinachoti, food science.
· Centennial Medallion, American Society of Landscape Architects, Dean Cardasis, landscape architecture and regional planning.
· American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow, Elizabeth Dale, hotel, restaurant, and travel administration.
· CFNR Outstanding Teacher Award, Eric Decker, food science.
· CFNR Certificate for Outreach Excellence, Linda Enghagen, hotel, restaurant, and travel administration.
· Honor Award in Communication, Boston Society for Landscape Architecture; Distinguished Academic Outreach Award; Ann Forsyth, Patricia McGirr, and Henry Lu, landscape architecture and regional planning.
· CFNR Certificate for Excellence in Advising, Nancy Garrabrants, plant and soil sciences.
· Ernest M. Gould Technology Transfer Award, New England Society of American Foresters; CFNR Certificate for Excellence in Advising; David Kittredge, forestry and wildlife management.
· Prescott Award, Institute of Food Technologists, Julian McClements, food science.
· CFNR Outstanding Teacher Award, Mark McDonald, sport studies.
· CFNR Certificate for Excellence in Teaching, H. Dennis Ryan, forestry and wildlife management.
· Places/Environmental Design Research Association Award, Robert Ryan, landscape architecture and regional planning.
· CFNR Certificate for Outreach Excellence, Kalidas Shetty, food science.
· Visiting Distinguished Researcher, University of Memphis, William Sutton, sport studies.
· CFNR Certificate for Outreach Excellence, Patricia Vittum, entomology.

HUMANITIES AND FINE ARTS
· CHFA Outstanding Teacher Award, Sigrid Bauschinger, Germanic languages and literature.
· CHFA Outstanding Teacher Award, Jeannette Cole, art.
· Distinguished Scholar Award, American Society for Theatre Research, Joseph Donahue, English.
· Independent Publisher Book Award, Martín Espada, English.
· Conti Faculty Fellowship Award, Angelika Kratzer, linguistics.
· Award of Distinguished Technical Communication, International Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, John Nelson, English.
· Fellow, Society of American Historians, Kathy Peiss, history.
· $449,000 in Ford Foundation and Justice Department grants, Janice Raymond, women's studies.
· CHFA Outstanding Teacher Award, Thomas Roeper, linguistics.
· Lehmann Lecturer, Smith College, Elizabeth Will, classics emerita.

ISENBERG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
· University Without Walls Outstanding Faculty Award, D. Anthony Butterfield, management.
· Fulbright Scholar (Finland), Marta Calas, management.
· Outstanding Academic Advising Award, Dennis Hanno, associate dean for undergraduate matters.
· Distinguished Teaching Award, 1999 SOM Outstanding Teacher Award, Mzamo Mangoliso, management.
· Professor of Telecommunications Award, Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, Craig Moore, finance and operations management.
· SOM Outstanding Teacher Award, Ray Pfeiffer Jr., accounting and information systems.

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
· Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Scott Auerbach, chemistry.
· CNSM Outstanding Teacher Award, Beatrice Botch, chemistry.
· $350,000 NSF CAREER Award, Elizabeth Brainerd, biology.
· Fulbright Research Scholar (Norway), Laurie Brown, geosciences.
· Board of Directors, Computing Research Association, Lori Clarke, computer science.
· CNSM Outstanding Teacher Award, Elizabeth Connor, biology.
· CNSM Outstanding Teacher Award, Roderic Grupen, computer science.
· $340,000 NSF CAREER Award, Narayanan Menon, physics and astronomy.
· $363,800 NSF CAREER Award, Ricardo Metz, chemistry.
· Conti Faculty Fellowship Award, Edward Rise-man, computer science.
· Conti Faculty Fellowship Award, Lawrence Schwartz, biology.
· Distinguished Teaching Award; 1999 CNSM Outstanding Teacher Award; Michael Williams, geosciences.

NURSING
· SON Outstanding Teacher Award, Joan P. Roche.
· National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, Eileen T. Breslin, dean.

PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH
SCIENCES
· Leathar Award for Health Education Research, Theory, and Practice, David Buchanan, community health studies.
· Distinguished Visting Scholar, Indiana University, Priscilla Clarkson, exercise science.
· Best Books and Manuals Award, Association Trends, Salvatore DiNardi, environmental health sciences.
· Distinguished Teaching Award; SPHHS Outstanding Teacher Award; Stella Volpe, nutrition

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
· $254,100 Ford Foundation grant, James Boyce, economics.
· Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award, Charles Clifton Jr., psychology
· $654,000 in Ford Foundation grants, Gerald Epstein and Robert Pollin, economics.
· Lewis Gurwitz Spirit Award, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, Peter d'Errico, legal studies.
· Nordberg Award for Excellence in Writing and Editing in the Population Sciences, Population Council, Nancy Folbre, economics.
· CSBS Outstanding Teacher Award, Morton Harmatz, psychology.
· CSBS Outstanding Teacher Award, Lynnette Leidy, anthropology.