The Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science … Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science Center...

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The Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science Center

2008-2009 Annual Report

The mission of the Glenn T. Seaborg Center is to enrich the knowledge and understanding of science and mathematics in students and teachers of the Upper Peninsula (Pre-K through College). The Seaborg Center’s primary service area encompasses Marquette and Alger counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including 13 public school districts, several private and charter schools, and pre-service and in-service teachers enrolled at Northern Michigan University.

Overview of the Year’s Accomplishments

Professional Development: Fall Conference for Educators: This conference in cooperation with Marquette-Alger RESA had

an attendance of over 1150 participants in 2008. Three hundred seventy-five teachers and administrators attended mathematics, science and/or technology sessions sponsored by the Seaborg Center, including sessions on the “Visualizing and Representing Number Patterns.”

Instruction in Inquiry (Mathematics & Science): A professional development program was held for 8

th through high school math, science and special education teachers. Teachers engaged

in hands-on inquiry strategies to improve instruction and student achievement. The two and a half day training one in math, another in science, facilitated best practice instructional strategies to help improve achievement of middle school and high school students as they prepare for the MME and ACT tests.

Student Programs – Regional Events: Science Olympiad Tournament & Coaches Workshop: This was the 22

nd year that the Seaborg

Center has sponsored the Upper Peninsula Science Olympiad Tournament for 320 middle and high school students. In the fall, the Center also hosted a Science Olympiad Coaches Workshop for 23 teacher participants in order to help recruit teams and new coaches.

First LEGO League Robotics Tournament: The Seaborg Center hosted the tournament with teams from across the Upper Peninsula competing. Ten schools competed and 100 students participated. Approximately twenty-four NMU students, seven community volunteers and nine NMU faculty volunteered time for the competition.

Student Programs – Center Events: College for Kids: The Center conducts a series of weekend and summer enrichment classes

called “College for Kids” (C4K) for student in grades K-8. The weekend program runs during the school year conducted by NMU’s education students under the supervision of Center staff. In the summer, community members and teachers presenters conduct the Summer College for Kids which features five week, weeklong activities. An example of a C4K session is “Turtles and Toads”, an outdoor biology class for a variety of ages held in the field and in a laboratory setting. This year's programs served 534 students in 34 different sessions.

Kaleidoscope & Star Lab: The Center delivers opportunities for important science content learning with our Star Lab (portable planetarium). The 2008-09 student service report showed Star Lab presentations to 510 students. Parents, children and community members enjoy astronomy together at annual community events such as the Kaleidoscope, where over 161 students and 13 adults participated in the Star Lab event to learn more about astronomy.



Organization of the Report The Strategic Plan identifies six service areas: Leadership, Professional Development, Student Services, Curriculum Support, Community Involvement, and Resource Clearinghouse. This report will focus on Professional Development in the entire service area. In addition, there will be a narrative targeting work done with underachieving schools in the area.

REGION-WIDE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Who participated? Professional development opportunities were provided for classroom teachers, classroom support staff, administrators, parents/community members, and others involved in K-12 education. The chart and summary descriptions below show who participated.

Table 1: Participants Receiving Professional Development

Reported Gender**

Position

Participants # of Indiv.

Total Hours

M F Admin Math Tchr

Sci Tchr

Tech Comb Subj

Other or Unknown*

Pre-School 3 19.5 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 Elementary 195 1817 24 137 3 0 2 0 175 15

Middle/Jr. High 71 1452 21 37 1 11 16 2 15 26 High School 81 825 32 36 2 22 24 5 5 23

K-12 Mixed Levels 57 973.5 22 32 6 3 11 3 12 22 Other* 57 736 5 12 1 1 2 0 0 53

Total 464 5823 104 256 13 37 55 10 209 140

* Other includes persons who work across levels, are not teachers or administrators, or did not indicate position. ** Gender was not reported by all individuals.

Professional development was delivered in many ways, depending upon the identified needs. Two primary formats included: (1) Single events, lasting for a portion of one day to several consecutive days, focused on a particular topic, skill, or issue; and (2) Series, which were a series of sessions (each building on the previous and conducted periodically over a several week/month period). The goal was to systematically strengthen teaching practices based on local needs and current research. Table 2 on the following page represents a picture of the number of sessions offered and the rate of attendance.

Goal: For educators who participate in Center Professional Development to reflect best instructional practices in their own settings.

Teachers, on average, spent 12.5 hours on mathematics, science, or

technology professional development.



Table 2: Professional Development Activities

Math Science Technology Other Total

Elementary and Middle School

Events 0 8 1 0 9 Hours 0 68 7 0 75 # Participants 0 135 4 0 139

Middle School/Jr. High

Events 1 1 0 0 2

Hours 2.5 2.5 0 0 5

# Participants 7 1 0 0 8

Jr. High & High School

Events 2 3 0 0 5

Hours 13 17.5 0 0 30.5


High School Events 1 0 0 0 1

Hours 6.5 0 0 0 6.5


K-12 Mixed Levels Events 4 6 0 2 12

Hours 27 37.5 0 10.5 75


Total

Events 8 18 1 2 29

Hours 49 125.5 7 10.5 192

# Participants 112 255 4 378 749

Spotlight on Value of Statewide Projects

The Michigan Mathematics and Science Centers Network deliver professional development, materials development and statewide support for the implementation of important and needed mathematics, science and technology teaching and learning. The value and usefulness of Network sponsored projects such as the HS-MASS Instruction in Inquiry, Algebra for All and K-7 Science Companion Documents Rollouts is invaluable. Without Network efforts, the Seaborg Center could not produce the quality and quantity of programs it now offers local educators. The 33 Centers pool their resources and the synergy of combined efforts produce quality, time and cost saving programs. At the Seaborg Center, one science teacher stated she will be changing all of her classes and the way that she instructs students based on her experiences with the Instruction in Inquiry professional development. Once she witnessed the increased student motivation instruction using inquiry sparks, she wanted to see this happen in all of her classes. Students continue to improve in mathematics and science in our area. Timely and exemplary professional development such as Algebra for All and K-7 Science Companion Document Rollout workshops bring to our remote region necessary information to keep teachers and administrators abreast of science and mathematics updates and training. Without the statewide Network of Centers, the time to develop, implement and evaluate the programs, we would not be able to accomplish the initiatives we have. As a Network, many more professional development programs can be accomplished with superior results because of the sharing of resources across the state. Our local teachers appreciate the efforts to hold U.P. regional trainings leaving them the option of a one day training without taking three days for a one day event, not to mention the travel costs savings (average costs of $600 a downstate trip vs. average costs of $60 for the costs of gas for U.P. travel).



Spotlight on Professional Development The Seaborg Center provides regional professional development to local educators. One example is the Fall Educators' Conference. The joint conference held in partnership with the Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency (MARESA) and has 600 to 1000 teachers attending each year. The Seaborg Center has developed a strong partnership with the MARESA to provide grant writing, curriculum support and ongoing professional development. Listed below are examples of programs we share with MARESA. Mathematics-Science Partnership (MSP) Grant “Greater Proficiency in Science”: 3rd through 7th grade Science: This MSP grant is a collaborative effort for four Math/Science Centers in the Upper Peninsula. It will provide third through seventh grade science teachers, professional development designed to improve science content understanding. The grant is a regional effort with participation of approximately 120 teachers, four U.P. Mathematics and Science Centers, and two universities, Northern Michigan University and Lake Superior State University. Seventeen Marquette-Alger teachers participated in four workshop days and a four day GPS Summer Institute on technology, science literacy and lesson study. Science content professional development was the theme of the summer institute offered at NMU and LSSU. Participating teachers in lesson study groups presented outlines of their lesson study design at the end of NMU’s summer institute. The grant has helped form leadership alliances and learning communities. In 2009-10, teachers will build upon that foundation and engage in in-depth lesson study including using technology to digitally present lessons. Mathematics and Science Learning Team Workshops: Building representatives meet monthly at the Seaborg Center for meetings (one month science teachers meet, the next month, mathematics teachers). Seaborg staff and MARESA staff plan, develop, and facilitate the workshops. In 2008-09 workshop training was provided to elementary teachers through the Greater Proficiency in Science (GPS) program and the Michigan Mathematics Program Improvement program (MMPI). The Instruction in Inquiry program targeted 8th through 12th grade math and science teachers. The Seaborg MMPI trainers provided in-depth professional development to teachers using best practice instructional strategies to improve mathematics at the 5-8th grade levels. The Seaborg Center provided facilities and resources in partnership with MDE and MARESA for the teachers during the four days of MMPI instruction. Each teacher was instructed on how to use math manipulatives and received instructional materials to implement the math training in their school buildings. Math and science updates, MEAP analyses and math/science resources were shared with the Math Learning Team and Science Learning Team members. In turn, these building representatives brought the information back to their home schools.



Student Services

Student services are delivered based on identified needs to improve and enhance mathematics and science education. Students who participate in enrichment activities have the opportunity to explore new concepts, develop process skills, cooperate on group tasks, and discuss their findings. Student services include:

school-day classroom programs provided by Center staff after-school and summer enrichment and support programs field trips to museums, natural areas, laboratories, and businesses to expose

students to practical application of mathematics and science knowledge organization of science and mathematics fairs and academic competitions

Table 3: Student Services Activities Provided in 2008-2009

Math Science Technology Total

Elementary Events 0 32 8 40

Hours 0 277 108 385

# Participants 0 773 140 913

Elementary and Middle School/Jr.

High

Events 0 4 4 8

Hours 0 24 53 77


Middle School/Jr. High

Events 0 3 1 4

Hours 0 60 15 75


Middle and High School

Events 0 1 0 1 Hours 0 8 0 8 # Participants 0 320 0 320

High School Events 0 1 0 1 Hours 0 20 0 20 # Participants 0 42 0 42

K-12 Mixed Levels Events 0 1 0 1 Hours 0 3 0 3 # Participants 0 75 0 75

Total Events 0 42 13 55 Hours 0 392 176 568 # Participants 0 1295 287 1582



Spotlight on Innovative Student Services One innovative student service is the Star Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) program. The Glenn T. Seaborg Center is a NASA Resource Center and has held this distinction for 22 years. The Seaborg Center is one of only two NASA Educator Resource Centers in Michigan. Each year we schedule speakers at our conferences and at schools as a NASA Educator Resource Center. We collaborate with NASA to provide resources, professional development and community programming for the Upper Peninsula’s educators. Additionally through our Star Lab (portable planetarium) and the presentations by an adjunct faculty member (a former planetarium operator), schools have introduced students to astronomy. The Seaborg Center also has trained teachers to use the Star Lab themselves. Community events such as the Kaleidoscope provide opportunities for the community to be introduced to astronomy content. The Seaborg Center provided over 6 portable planetarium presentations to students reaching 433 students. Presentations of the Star Lab at the annual Kaleidoscope Kids Fair reached 161 students and 13 parents. We continue to offer annual professional development for teachers interested in learning how to use the Star Lab at their schools by themselves in November with advanced instruction in June. The collaboration between the Shiras Planetarium and the Seaborg Center is bringing more outreach for the NASA Resource Center as teachers will now have access to the materials we house at NMU through the Shiras as well.



Spotlight on High Priority Schools There are currently no high priority schools in the Seaborg service area. Marquette-Alger RESA (MARESA) and the Seaborg Center are working together with the teaching staff to focus on building a curriculum that aligns more closely with the new course content expectations. MARESA performs yearly analyses of local MEAP data to identify areas of content weakness. At the Science and Mathematics Learning Team workshops, the Seaborg Center and MARESA work together to address these areas through professional development before students fail to achieve adequate progress. Initiatives include the following: Eight districts participated in the MSP "Greater Proficiency in Science" science

grant for elementary and middle science teachers, which was the first year of the grant. Participants took the Survey of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) and discussed the implications of the results.

The Mathematics and Science Learning Teams continue to focus on improving mathematics and science understanding and the connection to curriculum development. We are actively working to increase the quality of the professional development and curriculum support activities at the meetings by presenting important PD at the sessions. All local districts send representatives to these meetings and our goal is to help teachers disseminate the information after the meetings to others at their buildings.

We offered professional development on the K-7 Science Companion Documents to teachers and administrators where they learned about the new documents and helped them become comfortable with their use. Our goal is to help educators become “experts” at their grade level and across grade level curriculum by providing the tools they will need to prepare lessons that incorporate the best teaching and learning knowledge.



Spotlight on Partnerships The Center’s mission embodies the spirit of Glenn T. Seaborg—that is the continued pursuit for improvements in teaching and learning to benefit all members of society. The Center provides professional development and student programs that link the K-12 education community with faculty and students from the mathematic, education and science departments to provide resources, professional development, and community programming throughout the Upper Peninsula. The Seaborg Center has a sustained partnership with Northern Michigan University (NMU), which furnishes our facilities and funds a portion of our base budget. In return, the Center conducts professional development activities that link K-12 teachers with faculty members from the mathematics, education and science departments. We involve forty-one NMU faculty members in twelve disciplines and one hundred seventy-six NMU students as volunteers annually. Forty-five elementary education students at NMU conducted our weekend 2008-2009 College for Kids programs under the supervision of Center staff. The Center staff also participates in university committees and on-campus activities. Our work is the enrichment of science and mathematics teaching and learning for educators, students and community members of Michigan's Marquette and Alger counties. As a mathematics and science partnership, we provide an interface between the university, K-12 teachers and administrators, and community organizations. One partnership we are proud of is the one the Seaborg Center has with the Northern Area Health Education Center and Marquette General Hospital. The Seaborg Center collaborated with the Northern Area Health Education Center and Marquette General Hospital to host an annual three-day residential program for 42 high school students participating in the AGES Program (Area Geriatric Education Scholars). These selected talented students receive paid summer internships at approximately 15 regional geriatric care facilities throughout the Upper Peninsula. In their three days on campus, students learned about healthcare professions from faculty and staff at Marquette General Hospital, Northern Michigan University, and Wayne State University. They visited Marquette General Hospital and a local geriatric care facility, and they received six hours of training in CPR. A major goal of this program is to interest Upper Peninsula students in careers in healthcare. Our region has a shortage of healthcare workers and students who live in the area are good recruits. This year the Seaborg Center was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the AGES program to acknowledge the contribution we have made to the program’s success.



What was the impact of the Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science Center?

Impact on Students

Thirty-four sessions of College for Kids served

approximately 532 students. Two pre-service teachers and nine school teachers led the student sessions.

LEGOs® and NXT Robotics Tournament held at the Seaborg Center for 9 schools districts served 100 students.

U.P. Region 1 Science Olympiad: 320 students participated in the 2008 event. Ninety-eight NMU students, 17 NMU faculty and six community volunteers donated time to the event.

The AGES program (Area Geriatric Education Scholars) provided 42 high school students with three days of on-campus training in geriatric health care. There was an increase of 5% in student participation.

NMU had six students and two faculty members present poster sessions at the Yes! Expo in November 2008 (mathematics, science and technology careers) to hundreds of middle and high school students in Detroit. We saw a 50% increase in NMU student participation since last year.

Impact on Teachers

K-7 Science Companion Document Rollout:

A workshop targeted new Science Grade Level Content Expectations and the Companion Documents. Educators received the documents to help them plan lessons.

HS-MASS: Sixteen teachers participated in the Instruction in Inquiry sessions for mathematics and science.

Mathematics and Science Learning teams continued for mathematics and science, allowing teachers to share ideas about teaching and learning across grade levels.

MMPI: Four days of hands on, in-depth training offered on the Marquette-Alger area elementary teachers in the Michigan Mathematics Program in conjunction with Math Learning Team workshops.

Impact on Schools

Schools received help in aligning curriculum to

match the new content expectations in mathematics and science at Learning Team workshops.

Eight districts have teams of teachers participating in the MSP science grant.

Schools have access to equipment from the Seaborg Center, such as graphing calculators, physics equipment and GPS units.

Center staff wrote grant applications to help support local schools in cooperation with MARESA. For example, the MSP science grant expansion project, U.P. Sustainable Forest and Wildlife Fund, NSF grant work sessions and Title IIA grant application.

Impact on Communities

Local businesses supported this year’s

Science Olympiad Tournament with contributions of $5000, allowing students to attend the event at no cost.

The Seaborg Center provided portable planetarium presentations on astronomy reached 433 students in 2008-09 including a community wide event the Kaleidoscope Kids Fair. Teacher materials were developed to support instruction.

NMU Foundation work sessions to develop support for Seaborg Center vision and program capacity building.

Twenty-two community volunteers donated their time to Seaborg Center activities.



Director’s 2008-2009 Budget Discussion

This year the budget challenge came with Michigan’s challenging fiscal situation. With the threat of funding losses to the universities, the College of Professional Studies Dean required each department to develop a contingency plan to meet those challenges. We have proposed a 3%, 6% and 10% Seaborg Center budget cut plan to the Dean. We have been informed we will be implementing the 3% cut. This will affect our ability to pay for substitutes and materials for our Seaborg office. It may also cut our director by 10 days a year. The MSP Science grant does support some funds for our staff as well, so we may be able to balance the need with the grant funds for a year or two. We continue to write and collaborate with other NMU faculty for grants. By receiving additional grant funds, Center salary positions will not be effected. The Center continues to implement the following strategies to respond to the budget cuts:

Enhanced cooperation with Marquette-Alger RESA (MARESA): The Seaborg Center director meets monthly with consultants from MARESA to plan joint professional development schedules and share presenters. For the fourth year, the Seaborg Center and MARESA have sponsored mathematics and science learning-teams, where district representatives from all grade levels meet to share concerns, updates and activities.

Grant funding for more activities: The Seaborg Center is currently cooperating with Marquette-Alger RESA on several shared grants in both mathematics and science education. Funds supplied by initiatives of the Mathematics and Science Center Network continue to be helpful in sponsoring and guiding our professional development, for example the HS-MASS project “Instruction in Inquiry” in 2008-2009.

Sponsorships for student tournaments and regional events: We are continuing our work with Northern Michigan University’s Foundation to raise donations for our Center and its programs like the Upper Peninsula FIRST LEGO® League Tournament. Local businesses delivered $5000 to help support the 2008 U.P. Region 1 Science Olympiad tournament.

Staffing for Weekend College for Kids: Teams of NMU education students under the supervision of Seaborg Center staff teach weekend College for Kids. This offers experience for the students and greatly reduces the cost of offering these programs.

Projections for the future: For next year, with the budget cuts facing us we will need to reduce the amount spent for substitute teacher fees and workshop expenses. Attendances at professional development events will be affected. We will continue to seek grant funding for professional development needs in mathematics. The MSP Science grant will cover the science professional development this year. We will be pursuing additional funds to support our staff and other professional development needs as outlined in our new strategic plan. Staffing will decrease as the funding decreases. If we lose Michigan Mathematics and Science Center 99 funds, our entire staff will go from full time employees to part-time employees.



Director’s Summary 2008-2009

The Seaborg Center sponsored 30 professional development activities this year. We continue to carry out our new strategic plan and have been working hard to build partnerships for the future. We continue to focus on student services and professional development. Our leadership with the K-12 schools and with NMU’s faculty in the area of K-12 education is expanding. We collaborated with MARESA on grant work and sharing the professional development. Specifically we worked with MARESA consultants, Debra Asano and Charlie Yeager in rewarding professional collaboration. The talent and energy the MARESA staff exhibit continues to make the Seaborg Center successful in its efforts. The Seaborg Center continued to sponsor the sustained professional development reported last year. Sustained Professional Development:

Seventeen teachers in the Upper Peninsula MSP grant for elementary and middle school teachers (“Greater Proficiency in Science”) wrapped up the first year of professional activities including lessons study training and participating in NMU’s GPS Summer Institute in June. The four workshop training days during the year included SEC training, technology training, science literacy training and lesson study. The GPS Summer Institute including STEM faculty instruction and science pedagogy strategies

The Center sponsored four and a half workshop days for the HS-MASS Instruction in Inquiry project (two in science and two in mathematics with a half day of science and math breakouts). These workshops focused on helping teachers understand inquiry strategies and learn how to develop inquiry lessons.

The Seaborg Center and Marquette-Alger RESA continued the mathematics and science learning teams this year. Districts sent representatives from elementary, middle, and high school levels, fostering discussion about curriculum continuity across grade levels and across districts.



Plans for the Future: The community planning last year helped us produce a vision for the future that includes expanding our outreach services by employing work-study students and graduate assistants. We hope to tap into the NMU Leadership program to increase the participation of students in our programs from the 169 who are now involved. We are collaborating with the Shiras Planetarium to expand outreach to more teachers with the NASA materials we receive. We will work this year to develop a national online presentation for the NASA Educator Resource Center (ERC) group. We are working with NMU’s Mathematics department to begin a high school mathematics competition for the U.P. Partnerships with NMU’s School of Education and College of Arts and Sciences to write grants that could improve education will be continued and efforts increased. Developing our webpage to cut down on the number of emails sent will be another goal this year and into the future. Our mailing system and online registrations need to be improved. We will continue our efforts to engage parents/community persons into all of the Seaborg Center programs through identified strategies. (This year our College for Kids program sent out a parent survey.) The plans will be a challenge and we look forward to it with help from NMU faculty and staff, Math Science Center colleagues, educators and community mathematics and science supporters.

The Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science … Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science Center...

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