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Math + science = fun

With a $240,000 grant, TCU’s School of Ed is teaming up with campus departments, community to explore better ways to teach youngsters.

Math + science = fun

With a $240,000 grant, TCU’s School of Ed is teaming up with campus departments, community to explore better ways to teach youngsters.

Richland High School sophomore Katy Albury wanted to be a pilot someday. But after a week-long Introduction to Fabrication engineering camp in June, “I’ve got to rethink all of that,” said Albury, her workspace and clothing littered with tiny metal shavings from a metal lathe drilling project. “It has been very exciting.”

Albury was one of seven Fort Worth-area high school students who participated in the project led by TCU’s Institute of Math, Science and Technology Education and funded by a $260,000 Sid Richardson Foundation grant, which will bring an increasing number of camps and workshops to campus.

“In students nationwide, we see that the interest in math and science begins to wane after the third grade, and we really lose them in middle school and high school,” said Education Assistant Prof. Janet Kelly. “Our goal is to help the teaching of math and science in grades K through 12; we want to show that science and math can be interesting and can go beyond just memorizing formulas and facts.”

One look into the Winton-Scott lab where the engineering camp spent much of its time proves Kelly’s point. Taught by engineering professors Bob Bittle, Becky Bittle and Stephen Weis, students constructed circuit boards that were able to switch a light on and off with a simple touch and measured and drilled and tapped aluminum slabs to produce seemingly simple screw holes needed to attach almost anything in today’s devices.

“We showed the students what goes into bringing a product to market,” the professor Weis said. “They have CD players and other things that they have no idea what goes into making them; we wanted to give them a taste of what’s involved. While I think this is a good way to recruit new students, we also wanted to do the camp as a way to get involved with kids in our community.”

The Institute is also working closely with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Fort Worth Zoo, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas and numerous public and private schools, including the Fort Worth Independent School District and four other neighboring ISDs.

Kelly and Biology Prof. Ray Drenner also led a workshop addressing individual teacher needs in the classroom; the engineering faculty conducted a similar workshop. And this fall, approximately 300-400 elementary students will be selected by area teachers to participate in a math and science “mini-university,” with TCU pre-service teachers assisting lead teachers.

“That’s what this is all about,” Kelly said, “building partnerships and finding ways together to improve math and science education.”