Stimulating Inquiry in Math and Science: Developing a Math/Science Community

Project Title: Stimulating Inquiry in Math and Science: Developing a Math/Science Community

Project Director:  Dr. John Messick  

Lead Institution:  Missouri State Southern University

Duration of Project:  Three years

Grade Level Focus:  4-8

Credit Hours to be Provided: N/A

Project Summary:
The School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education at Missouri Southern State University have partnered with three high-needs school districts in Southwest Missouri to create the SIMS project, Stimulating Inquiry in Math and Science:  Developing a Math and Science Community.  Also participating in the SIMS Project is the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, the Ozark Rural Systemic Initiative, and the George Washington Carver National Monument. 

Partner districts, which are moving to higher level inquiry-based curricula, have expressed a need to be better prepared to function at this higher level.  To meet these needs, faculty and administrators at MSSU have developed activities in the areas of content and pedagogy.  This project is designed to offer over 160 clock hours of content preparation activities each year.  Teacher participants will choose which 60 clock hours they will attend each year.

The proposed three-year project consists of five interrelated activities:  1) content workshops, supplemented by e-conferencing and an on-line help desk devoted to workshop topics.  2) Pedagogy training embedded in the content workshops and separately implemented through e-conferencing and training videos that model inquiry-based instructional methods.  The e-conferencing sessions for both content and pedagogy training are devoted to a different topic each week where university professors and k-12 teachers interact on the topic.  3) Workshops on using technology to support inquiry-based instruction, 4) assessment studies to help teachers interpret MAP scores, and 5) a review of the MSSU pre-service curriculum round out the activities. 

To fulfill the SIMS Project objectives, project personnel will develop pre-and post-tests for content workshops in math and science, observation instruments, and pre/post-tests.  Additionally, SIMS will train observers to note changes in student teacher behaviors and use the MSSU Math Placement Test to measure math content gains in pre-service teachers.