Morgan State University (MSU)

Year Two Report Summary (2001-2002)

Objective

The focus of the Morgan NRTS Institutional Research Award has been to create and implement change in teacher training and curriculum instruction in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology (SMET) areas at our partner sites. Morgan NRTS continues to focus its efforts on supporting its active partners while encouraging the involvement of all the school sites in projects that will enhance their independence and ability to participate in a full range of NASA related activities. They believe that this focus will produce a better prepared teaching force and a more literate student population. The NRTS focus under the IRA continuation award has been centered on the NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics (NOVA) education program. Along with this activity has been the promotion and participation in various NASA/MU-SPIN educational activities. The goal remains to provide a quality learning and research environment and to inspire an increase in the number and quality of students, including pre-service student teachers achieving degrees in NASA related SMET fields. This focus serves the partners, program participants and it draws readily from available institutional capacity to promote instructional change.

The following details the activities of the MSU NRTS project as it relates to research, education, and technology:

Research Activity

A member of the faculty from a NRTS participated in the teacher preparation workshop for The Bolivia Project spearheaded by NASA/GSFC. MSU NRTS teamed up with the National Science Foundation/ITR Large Grant Proposal regarding the introduction science on the Semantic Web to high school and college students. MSU NRTS sponsored several computer science students and faculty mentors to compete in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest held at johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

Educational Activity

The effectiveness of implementing the teaching strategies of the NOVA program, instituting new project initiatives, and establishing innovative partnerships were measured a number of education metrics including, three NOVA Project Proposals with university partners, two NOVA education workshops and High Performance Super Computing Workshops to which approximately 30/62 pre-service and in-service teachers attended. Additionally, four university partners, three partner high schools, and two middle school partners workshops were conducted. In the year 2001-2002, approximately $90,000.00 of leveraged funding was received from NRTS education related activities and approximately 100 students participating in NRTS education activities.

MSU participated in a NOVA Education, Mathematics, and Science Development Workshop. This workshop featured the faculty of the successful BioMath NOVA course underway at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Dr. L. Michael Freeman, NOVA Consortium, University of Alabama and Mr. James Harrington, NASA/MU-SPIN. MSU participated in three NOVA awards at two partner sites. Additionally, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Central State continued a second run of the courses modified under their NOVA proposals. MSU contributes and participates in the mentoring activities of the National Technical Association (NTA) its 3-T Mentor Program. The NTA Annual Scholarship Awards Banquet recognizes the outstanding work of teachers and students in the technical sciences during the school year. MSU supported several workshop programs. The Mathematics in Science Fair Workshop was designed to provide faculty development and curriculum enhancement for teachers. The Workshop in Chemistry involved twenty students in grades 6-8 from a NRTS middle school. Pre-service teachers designed assignments and raised the interest and understanding of science conducted this workshop. The lessons incorporated NASA's mission and how chemistry affects life in space. The workshop Bridge-up to Science and Mathematics was designed to increase basic math skills and foster interest in the sciences among middle school females. The students were exposed to the basic principles of computer science, biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering and physics. The Office of Instructional Technology, Baltimore City Public Schools and Sabatech Corporation, an information technology company specializing in learning technologies and programs, conducted the Computer Science Camp workshop, collaboratively. This camp was designed to introduce participants to problem solving with a visual approach.

Remote Sensing and the Pigeon Adventure Workshop is a new NASA education program for K-4 teachers. The Pigeon Adventure presents science concepts through metaphors and analogies that relate to inner-city life. The use of a pigeon as the vehicle for the adventure provided a metaphor familiar to inner-city children, and the story approach of Amelia's (the pigeon) adventure introduced the concept of perspective. The annual IRA award is $350,000. This award supports the overall program, which includes senior personnel and student costs (as hires, scholarships or stipends), fringe benefits, travel, and participant support. It also provides for other cost such as materials and supplies, publication and documentation, dissemination, consultant support, computer service, sub-awards and associated direct cost.

Technology Activity

A graduate from the computer science department re-designed the homepage and updated the website. Two NASA funded projects at MSU collaborated this fall to promote the use of advanced computational platforms in solving applications in the scientific and engineering communities. They are the NRTS Project under the direction of Dr. William Lupton of the Department of Computer Science and the Forging a Partnership Program under the direction of Dr. Eugene M. Debouch. The Director of High Performance Computing for the Forging a Partnership Award will conduct the two training workshops for mathematics and science faculty from Coppin State College, a university partner in the NRTS Project.