�Lehigh University has standard a $317,778 grant from the Toyota USA Foundation to promote environmental literacy in the nation's middle schools. The duncan Grant will be used to create professional development materials for teachers, as well as to develop science curriculum exploitation a parcel of innovative instructional technologies.
Lehigh's WELIM go-ahead - Web-enhanced Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Modules - is a collaborative sweat between its College of Education and the university's Environmental Initiative. The programme will be first piloted by Nitschmann and Broughal Middle Schools in Bethlehem, Pa, the latter of which is a NASA Explorer School.
"The Toyota USA Foundation is proud to support the WELIM enterprise," said Patricia Pineda, Toyota's Group Vice President, National Philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation. "Education has always been a anteriority for us, and environmental literacy is critical for the next generation of leaders. WELIM will teach environmental skill in a comprehensive and innovative way."
The program will rely on geospatial info technologies (GIT) to help students psychoanalyse information and data on three core topics: energy Department, climate change and the impact of human bodily function on the environment. Issues such as urban and suburban sprawl, water resource usage, contamination, and ecosystem management will be included in the curriculum.
The 2005 National Academies report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, helped draw attention to a critical want of focus on science education in America. In order to remain globally competitive, the report calls for 16.5% gain in the number of American students taking advanced placement (AP) or international baccalaureate (IB) level mathematics or skill exams by 2010, as well as aggressive enlisting and grooming program for the nation's 250,000 secondary science and mathematics teachers.
The WELIM initiative is a pilot program program that directly addresses both concerns simultaneously victimisation GIT. The technologies, which range from handheld GPS systems to Web artificial satellite imagery, serve students search geography and collect data while becoming more familiar with their environment.
All materials will closely align with the National Science Education Standards, combining environmental sciences with a more contemporaneous curriculum.
"We've gone through years - most a wide generation - without significantly changing our country's science curriculum to reflect the global issues our beau monde is facing," says Dr. Alec Bodzin, associate professor of pedagogy, learning and technology with Lehigh's College of Education, and the lead principal investigator (PI) of the grant. "There's definitely a renewed pursuit in vigour conservation. The challenge is incorporating these topics into our course of study in a timely and relevant manner, while giving teachers the tools and resources in order to that effectively."
Dr.Dork Sahagian and Dr. David Anatsasio, both professors of earth and environmental sciences with Lehigh's College of Arts and Sciences, are grant co-PIs. The assignment will likewise support three PhD candidates, two from Lehigh's College of Education and one from Lehigh's earth and environmental sciences program.
"There have been many obstacles preventing this country's science and environmental curricula to kick upstairs in a competitive personal manner," says Sahagian, who likewise serves as director of Lehigh's Environmental Initiative. He argues that science education is hampered by a lack of resources, effective teacher training modules, and technology accessibility.
"With a new emphasis on science proficiency and environmental literacy, our WELIM send off can really help transform science program line and anatomy how we approach these issues in just a few long time," he says.
The Toyota USA Foundation is a $100 million charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students and their teachers in the United States, with an emphasis on mathematics, skill and environmental science. For additional data about the Toyota USA Foundation, visit http://www.toyota.com/foundation.
Lehigh's Environmental Initiative is a multidisciplinary effort that brings together a full spectrum of scientists, engineers, social scientists, and educators to respond to - "and ready students for - "the environmental problems facing modernistic and future societies.
About Lehigh University
For 143 years, Lehigh University (hTTP://www.lehigh.edu/) has combined owing academic and learning opportunities with leading in raising innovative research. The mental institution is among the nation's most selective, highly ranked private enquiry universities. Lehigh's four colleges - " College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Economics, College of Education and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science - " allow for opportunities to 6,five hundred students to discover and grow in a learning community that promotes interdisciplinary programs with real-world experience. Lehigh's campus is located in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley - " in Bethlehem, PA (50 miles north of Philadelphia and 75 miles southwest of New York City).
Source: Tom Yencho
Lehigh University
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