Tech reaches out to K-12
By Stacey Kukkonen, DMG WriterHOUGHTON - Michigan Technological University continues to reach out to K-12 students and teachers.
With projects under its belt such as Professor Alex Mayer's GK 12 Global Watershed project - an initiative aimed at getting graduate students involved with K-12 students - the university continues to move forward with similar collaborations.
At the Tech Board of Control's Friday meeting, Interim Provost Max Seel told the board the school boasts a vast number of offerings, including about a dozen professional development courses to an average of 200 teachers each summer, with more than 20 K-12 related projects supported by $12.7 million in outside funding during the 2009-10 academic year.
"It is a national agenda," Seel said. "We all know in order to keep competitiveness alive, we need to do a better job in education, especially in science, engineering, technology and math."
Michigan Tech has the only Peace Corps Master's International Program in science education in the nation and offers teacher certification in 11 fields to teach grades 6 through 12 and also offers a bachelor of science degree in an academic field. The university also offers a master of science in applied science education to practicing K-12 teachers.
"These represent just a few of the highlights of the role Tech plays," Lenora Ashford, Board of Control member, said. "We were delighted to get this information. The report is quite impressive and I believe nobody was aware of how much Tech is actually doing."
Ashford said the Academic Affairs Committee requested a report at the July 2009 Board of Control retreat concerning Michigan Tech's involvement with K-12 education with regard to approving K-12 and a means to recruit motivated high school students to Tech.
Seel said Tech not only does research in engineering and science, but also does research related to K-12 outreach. Seel discussed with the board the impact of the program and creating an initiative to get students interested in Michigan Tech.
With programs such as Women in Engineering and the High School Enterprise Program, Seel said students envelop a realm of science, technological and engineering education reaching thousands of students.
"Michigan Tech, so far, has 900 teachers in 28 states and 200 teachers coming on campus annually," Seel said.
In other news, the board:
approved the revised project costs for the Great Lakes Research Center from $25 million to $25,337,000.
approved amendments to the constitution and bylaws for the Graduate Student Council, which was changed to the Graduate Student Government.
approved late fee payment assessments.
heard from Cara Hanson, president of the Undergraduate Student Government.
heard from George Butvilas, chair of the Michigan Tech Fund and from Rudy Luck, president of the University Senate.
Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen@mininggazette.com
