GRANT WILL GEAR UP TEACHERS $350,000 IN FEDERAL FUNDS SLATED FOR MATH, SCIENCE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer LANCASTER - A communitywide effort to promote math and science education is getting a boost from a $350,000 federal grant to help train future and current middle school teachers. Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College is a comprehensive community college located in Lancaster, California, USA. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. is receiving the grant from the National Science Foundation for a three-year effort to improve the training of science and math teachers. The funding will be used to improve the college's curriculum for future teachers and to provide workshops for existing teachers. ``We want to give them the experience and confidence to be good math and science teachers,'' said Les Uhazy, AVC's dean of math and science. A major component of the effort will be a retooling of the teacher training curriculum at Antelope Valley College. The college is working on creating a new Associate of Arts Associate of arts and Associate of science are two-year undergraduate degrees offered by many community colleges or junior colleges in the United States. Such degrees transfer to four-year institutions which offer full bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. degree program with an emphasis on science and mathematics. ``We are reforming our current classes,'' said Christos Valiotis, a physics instructor who is leading the grant project with chemistry instructor Jessica Harper. ``Students will learn with hands-on activities rather than watching a teacher at the blackboard or at an overhead projector.'' The effort will also include summer workshops for current middle school teachers and a lecture series, tapping into the Antelope Valley's large number of scientists and engineers. ``There are a lot of talented people in this valley,'' Uhazy said. ``It's terrific to bring people with that kind of experience - practical experience - into the classrooms.'' The effort is being supported by a community coalition called the Mathematics Science Engineering Technology Consortium, or MSET MSET Maintenance Standardization and Evaluation Team MSET Multi-Sensor Exploitation Testbed MsET Mississippi Enterprise for Technology, Inc. (John C. Stennis Space Center; NASA) MSET Missile Standardization, Evaluation, and Training for short. The consortium comprises more than 50 regional businesses, government agencies and K-16 school districts. MSET partners include the Air Force, the NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. , Boeing, Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. , Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. , and the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster. MSET was formed in an effort to try to create a pipeline of students interested in pursuing math- and science-related careers, such as in the chronically short-handed engineering fields. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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