Wesleyan University’s Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science Awarded Grant from CT State Department of Education

$158,483 grant supports the creation of an Intel Math Institute to provide intensive professional development for area K-8 teachers

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Teachers – Apply here by April 21, participants will be notified of acceptance by April 30.

Middletown, Conn. – Wesleyan University’s Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science has been awarded a CT State Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant to create an Intel Math Institute for Middletown and Meriden teachers starting this summer. The Institute will include a content-intensive, 80-hour math course with ongoing academic year professional development and arts integration workshops to support teachers in linking Common Core concepts to classroom instruction.  Participants will be mentored in implementing math standards and practices, as well as improving pedagogy knowledge and understanding for math classroom instruction. The project involves teaching artists from Wesleyan’s Green Street Arts Center who will take the intensive math course alongside the teachers and develop workshops for K-8 educators that integrate the arts into math instruction.

“This award is very exciting,” says PIMMS and Green Street Arts Center Director Sara MacSorley. “It embodies the direction of the partnership of PIMMS and the Green Street Arts Center. We want to create a space for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This is the first time we’ve formally integrated the arts into a math professional development opportunity. The arts, like science and math, build skills in observation, visual thinking, pattern recognition, and problem-solving – all valuable skills for the next generation.”

The Institute will be co-taught by Wesleyan Assistant Professor Christopher Rasmussen and Math Education Specialist Sharon Heyman, currently the only CT-based Intel-trained instructors.

“I am proud and thrilled that Wesleyan has been awarded a Connecticut State Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant to implement an Intel Math Institute,” says Wesleyan President, Michael Roth. “We have long practiced interdisciplinary math and science education on campus, and we are eager to share what we’ve learned with teachers from across the state.”

PIMMS, with 35 years of demonstrated experience in delivering high-quality professional development for math and science teachers, will lead this partnership.  Sara MacSorley, who will serve as Project Coordinator, cited the award as a model for the State’s commitment to maintaining the competitiveness of its workforce through improved instruction in mathematics and science with an arts integration twist.

About PIMMS

Wesleyan University’s PIMMS began in 1979 as a joint effort of a diverse group of volunteers from education, business, government, and industry to foster increased understanding and appreciation of mathematics by Connecticut high school graduates.  It was established under the direction of Robert A. Rosenbaum, the University Professor of Mathematics and the Sciences.  In 1983, the organization broadened its scope to include science and began the PIMMS Fellowship Programs. In 2012 PIMMS joined the Green Street Arts Center in a strategic move to develop a new partnership to provide integrative teaching and learning opportunities in art, math, and science. 

 About the Green Street Arts Center

The collaborative spirit of Wesleyan University, the City of Middletown, and the North End Action Team helped create the Green Street Arts Center in 2005. Being located in Middletown’s historic North End allowed the Center to become a beacon of change for the community and a gathering place for people from all walks of life to come together through art. Since opening, more than 20,000 people have experienced Green Street’s programs in the visual, performing, and media arts.

For more information about the Green Street Arts Center or PIMMS, please call 860-685-7871 or visit www.wesleyan.edu/greenstreet.

Email: gsac@wesleyan.edu

Address: 51 Green Street, Middletown, CT 06457

 

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