Georgia Tech STEP: Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership 2006 GK-12 Grantees Conference (2)Llewellyn

Critical Features of a Successful Partnership Mutual Benefits Alignment with strategic institutional goals These are necessary for institutionalization!

Institutionalization at the schools School support (stipends) for undergraduate fellows School grant-writing to locate funds to continue the program

Institutionalization at Georgia Tech Recall from my presentation last year: Move to teaching interns – supported in part by NSF funds, part by the provost, and the rest by advisors or academic departments

Teaching Interns - What are we doing?

Teaching Interns - How are we doing? We just finished hiring graduate fellows for Year 4: Planned on having 8 GT GK-12 Fellows Planned on having 4 NSF Teaching Interns Planned on having 6 Undergrad Fellows supported by GT We will have 4 or 5 GT GK-12 Fellows Will have 15 or 16 NSF Teaching Interns (!) Will have 6 Undergrad Fellows supported by GT Will have 4 Undergrad Fellows supported by a HS

Teaching Interns - Why did we choose this? STEP administrators (and many NSF administrators) anticipated that the Fellowship experience might be a partial substitute for the research in which Fellows engaged. However, it became evident that Fellows intended to continue their research at the same pace they had been working prior to the Fellowship. And, in fact, for most Fellows, their work in the laboratories did not slow up throughout their experience in the high schools STEP Annual Report

Teaching Interns - Why did we choose this? "The STEP fellowship program allows students to interact with the local community and contribute to the education of the next generation of potential researchers…Graduate students will have to explain to the high school students and their teachers what theyre doing in the lab. The ability to explain one's work at a basic level to a general audience is a valuable skill that I believe all scientists should strive to obtain. So, while involvement in the STEP fellowship program may not have an immediately obvious impact on a student's research program, the potential impact to a student's career development is unquestionable." -Dr. Seth Marder, Advisor Reference