Participants in the Teaching Scholar Partnership Program gathered for training sessions on campus recently. Front row, from left, are Esther Oey, Renee Ciulla, Stephanie Murray, Cathy Carr, Nadia Marano and Erika Barthelmess. Back row, Jeremy Ouellette, Matt Kokoszka, Joanna Bush, Donna Kennedy, Becky Buckingham, Ron Reed, Michelle Zugermayr, Marilyn Mayer, Mike Temkin, Susan Comley, Karen Cook and Abby LaPage. Also participating, but not pictured, are Lasaunta Cruz, Mickie Flores, Patti Fraser Lock, Laura Fredrickson, Karin Bodensteiner and Advisory Committee member James Shuman. (Photo by University Photographer Tara LaFredo) A List 9/2/02 SLU SCIENCE STUDENTS WORK WITH TEACHERS IN AREA SCHOOLS CANTON - Seven St. Lawrence University students are working with teachers in area schools in a program aimed at encouraging them to pursue careers as mathematics and science teachers. The Teaching Scholar Partnerships Program encourages promising mathematics and science students to pursue careers in teaching at the K-12 level, and enhances the learning experiences of elementary and secondary students as they study mathematics and science. The St. Lawrence students are working with teachers in the Heuvelton, Potsdam, Massena, Lisbon and Canton school systems, bringing new inquiry-based pedagogies into the classrooms. The program is in the second year of a two-year grant funded by the National Science Foundation and administered through the Independent Colleges Office. St. Lawrence is contributing over $50,000 of its own funds to the project, which is coordinated on campus by Assistant Professor of Education Esther R. Oey. Teaching scholars, their cooperating classroom mentors and University faculty mentors are Joanna Bush '05, of Harrisville, and Susan Comley '05, of Schenectady, working with Heuvelton teacher Donna Kennedy and Patti Lock, mathematics; Renee Ciulla '03, of Weare, NH, working with Canton teacher Cathy Carr and Laura Fredrickson, environmental studies; Lasaunta Cruz '05, of Escondido, CA, working with Potsdam teacher Ron Reed and Karin Bodensteiner, biology; Matt Kokszka '03, working with Massena teacher Karen Cook and Michael Temkin, biology; Stephanie Murray '04, of Chittenango, working with Canton teacher Michele Flores and Nadia Marano, chemistry; and Michelle Zugermayr '04, of Watertown, working with Lisbon teachers Rebecca Buckingham and Abby LaPage and Erika Barthelmess, biology. The Independent Colleges Office (the Washington, D.C.-based representative of a group of select liberal arts colleges across the nation) has joined with the American Association of Community Colleges and the Council for Independent Colleges in this pilot project. In addition to developing interest in K-12 mathematics and science teaching careers among undergraduate students, the project also seeks to focus greater national attention on the critical need for collaborative partnerships to ensure the vitality of local schools. At St. Lawrence, the program gives science and mathematics majors personal experience teaching in K-12 classrooms; provides classroom assistance and active-learning content support (i.e., curricular materials) for math and science teachers in area schools; and facilitates the communication and exchange of ideas between local K-12 math and science teachers and their counterparts at St. Lawrence, to support the professional development of both.
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