Enhancing Connections:
The K-16 Community and Integrating Science in the Curriculum

Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Philadelphia Regional Network Workshop
6 April, 2002
Bryn Mawr College

  Meeting proceedings now available:  

This meeting, to be held 6 April at Bryn Mawr College (directions), is intended to bring together regional precollege and college educators who share a common interest in making science and mathematics a more successful and integral part of the student experience at all levels of the educational process. The meeting has four general objectives

  1. To provide K-12 educators a forum in which they can make known the realities of K-12 education as it bears on science and mathematics, and how college and university educators might most effectively assist with K-12 education.
  2. To begin surveying existing K-16 collaborations in the Philadelphia region, both to create a resource base and to try and determine what is effective, what is not, and why. The objective is to identify and publicize "best practices" so as to enhance K-16 collaborations in the future.
  3. To begin discussion of the question of whether K-16 science and mathematics education might be made more successfully inclusive by efforts to better integrate science and mathematics into curricula generally, rather than treating them largely as isolated and specialized subjects. This might involve new working relationships among teachers of math and science, social science, and humanities.
  4. To facilitate the development of supportive networks of familiarity among individuals with a common concern for the improvement of education in sciences and mathematics, and of education generally.

 

Program Outline

8:30 am Gathering and Coffee (Benham Gateway Building Conference Room)
9-10:30 am
Session I (Benham Gateway Building Conference Room)

K-12 Forum - Thoughts of K-12 educators on how college and universities can be most helpful Introductory Panel
(Kip Bollinger - Science Education Advisor, Pennsylvania Department of Education; Cathleen Conn, Supervisor of Science and Technology Education, West Chester School District; Claudette Stone, Assistant Principal, Girls' High School, Philadelphia; Joan Johnston -Malin, Science Teacher, Northeast High School, Philadelphia; Maria Fitzgerald, Science Teacher, Carrol High School, Philadelphia, Regnia Toscani, Teacher, Benjamin Rush Middle School, Philadelphia; Sharon Lee, Teacher, CW Henry Middle School, Philadelphia; Kathleen Massey, Fugett Middle School, West Chester)

Break out group discussions

Reports and general discussion
(to be summarized for web dissemination)

10:30-10:45 am Coffee Break
10:45-12:45 am
Session II (Ely Room, Wyndham Alumni House)

K-16 Collaborations: A Survey of Current and Planned Initiatives in the Philadelphia Area (poster presentations) Poster previews

Poster viewing and program evaluations

Guided discussion of best practices and new opportunities
(to be summarized, along with listing of programs, for web dissemination)

12:45 am-1:45 pm Lunch (Dorothy Vernon Room, Hafner) Remarks by Jeanne Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope
2-3:15 pm
Session III (Benham Gateway Building Conference Room)

Ending the Isolation? - Pros and Cons of Better Integrating Science and Mathematics In the Curriculum (facilitators: Jody Cohen, Paul Grobstein, Alice Lesnick, Elizabeth McCormack, and students, Bryn Mawr College)

Motivational experience

Break out activities

Reflections: challenges and benefits
(to be summarized for web dissemination)

3:15-3:30 pm Coffee break
3:30-4 pm PKAL Philadelphia Regional Network Planning Meeting

Hosted by Bryn Mawr College and the Bryn Mawr College Center for Science in Society


For further information contact Kathleen Carter, Paul Grobstein, Elizabeth McCormack