MAGNOLIA— Students from 12 school districts in southwest Arkansas will benefit from math and science partnerships delivered because of two federal grants awarded to Southern Arkansas University.
The fundamental importance of the grants, according to their author, Dr. Roger Guevara, director of the Southwest-B Educational Renewal Zone at SAU, is that they provide an opportunity for collaboration between the University and regional kindergarten through 12th grade partner school districts. Two SAU biology professors, Tim Daniels and Dr. Thomas Smith, helped area teachers learn new ways to teach science which will help students prepare for the Arkansas frameworks tests.
Similarly, Dr. Debe Kincaid, an SAU math professor, and Lynne Nielson, the math specialist for the Center of Teaching Excellence, facilitated the math institute.
On the science side, 24 teachers from school districts in southwest Arkansas are participating in the project and make a three-year commitment to attend a two-week summer institute dedicated to improving their skills in science. The math institute had 43 teachers participating in the training sessions which focused on developing academic math coaches.
“Out of the literally hundreds of math and science partnership grants awarded., ours was only one of three in Arkansas selected to give a presentation as a model program for the U.S. Department of Education’s Math/Science Partnership Conference in Chicago last spring,” Guevara said.
The two grants fall under the umbrella of “No Child Left Behind,” and are being offered in conjunction with the South Central Service Cooperative. The total for the math grant was $436,000 and the total for the science grant was $326,627.
The teachers who were chosen to participate in the either project received a $1,250 stipend or earned six-hours of graduate credit at SAU for rigorous and highly relevant academic coursework completed through the institute throughout the school year.
“These summer institutes are an incredible resource for the teachers plus they are in perfect alignment with SAU’s future high tech science buildings as we focus on building partnerships with our regional school district partners in Arkansas,” Guevara said.
