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Building Math Skills in Context: Integrating Mathematics with Engineering and Technology, A Professional Development Course for Middle and High School Teachers Abstract

Between February 5 and June 6 of 2005, as part of Power Up! North, Northern Essex Community College, with funding from Boston's Museum of Science, conducted a 15 session workshop series entitled, Building Math Skills in Context: Integrating Mathematics with Engineering and Technology. 3 Graduate Credits were made available to participants through a local college's graduate school.

Four teams of teachers from area school districts were selected. Each team consisted of one or more math teachers and one or more technical/science teachers and could include up to 5 members. A kit of teaching materials was awarded to each team at the completion of the course.

This course was designed to build Math skills in the context of how they are integrated with Engineering and Technology. One goal of the course was to empower middle school and high school teachers to incorporate math concepts essential to engineering and technology into both technical education courses (science, physical science, and physics) and mathematics courses within the school district classrooms. Another major goal was to empower teachers to relate the applied math topics to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics and the Curriculum Frameworks for Science, Engineering and Technology. Toward this end, discussions were held among the participants relating the material of the course to the standards of the Curriculum Frameworks.

An outside evaluator evaluated this course with pre and post surveys and also conducted a site visit. The results of that evaluation are included in this paper.

Introduction

Building Math Skills in Context: Integrating Mathematics with Engineering and Technology is a professional development course for middle and high school teachers developed by the engineering faculty of Northern Essex Community College under contract to the PowerUp Project. PowerUp is a National Science Foundation (NSF) advanced technological education initiative. The project is a collaboration between the Boston Museum of Science, three community colleges in Massachusetts, eight local high school districts, the Department of Education and local businesses. The PowerUp goals include:

• Improving the teaching and learning of engineering and engineering technology among teachers and students in Massachusetts' secondary schools and community colleges, • Strengthening high school teachers’ knowledge and capabilities, • Fostering articulation pathways; and, • Providing opportunities for high school and college teachers to work together to smooth student transition from high school to college.

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Pelletier, M., & Chanley, P. (2007, June), Building Math Skills In Context: Integrating High School Mathematics With Engineering And Technology Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1713