Managing Complexity: Top 10 For New PIs April Strom, Ph.D. Scottsdale Community College This work was supported in part by MSP grant # through the National Science Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NSF.

 MSP Targeted  Funded March 2012  5-year, $8.7M  Partners  3 community colleges ▪ Math Ed Faculty/Researchers ▪ Mathematicians ▪ Master’s and Doctoral Students ▪ Undergrad Researchers ▪ Pre-service Teachers  7 school districts ▪ 300 middle school teachers (expanded to 5 th -9 th grade) ▪ 35+ school administrators  RMC Research  Arizona State Univ.

Number/Operations Geometry/Measurement Problem Solving Year 1 Probability/Stats Patterns/Functions Lesson Design & High Quality Assessments Year 2 Teacher-Leadership Year 3 Institutes/Workshops In Years 1 & 2… Summer Institute I & II (1 week each) Saturday Workshops (4 each year) CCOLs ~100 hours of PD In Year 3… Teacher-Leadership Institute Summer Math Camp Action Research Project Facilitate CCOLs

“If you think writing the proposal was a lot of work, just wait until you get funded!” -- Kathleen Bergin

Windows Live Mesh Box.net  Seamless file availability, transfer and storage  Think about what file structure you want  Team folders  Sharing permissions

Goals: To Identify…  Interdependencies  Proper execution  Resource requirements  Develop detailed timeline Steps: 1. Identify task-owners 2. Assign colors per task-owner 3. Record key tasks, milestones on post-its 4. Assemble post-its in chronological order 5. “Walk” the map as a team

Project Leadership School Administrators Teachers!

 Do it immediately!  Sharing Information  Overview the project  Sample project activities  Meet other district partners  Guest speakers from past projects (teachers & administrators)  Live registration to MSPnet (iPads)

 Get to know the school districts and their challenges  Make friends with the principals, LISTEN to their challenges, all are different!  Present at School Board Meetings

 Frequent progress reports  Include in project team meetings  Schedule monthly meetings  Revisit Evaluation Plan, revise as needed

ListenIdentifyAlignAssign Project PIs should first… …then create Org Chart

Faculty Principals Math Specialists Superintendents Parents Students Project Staff Teachers School Boards Evaluator NSF Researchers

Dr. April Strom Scottsdale Community College