TRIUNFO TRIUMPH Receives Continued Funding!

Local K-12 Students Triumph: Triunfo Funding Continues!

Thanks to another generous grant from the Bohemian Foundation, local kids will continue to have the opportunity to be tutored by CSU students in the 2008-2009 academic year.

Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring Program for K-12 Students Doubles in Size

Twice a week, the CSMATE Experiential Learning Studios fill up with kids who need a little extra help on their homework. One-hundred and eleven CSU students from across campus have risen to the occassion and are volunteering to help these 200 kids in all subjects, but particularly science and mathematics.

Thanks to generous funding from the Bohemian Foundation, The Fort Collins Community Foundation, the College of Natural Sciences, El Centro Student Services, and CSMATE, we are able to bring these students to a state-of-the-art learning environment on the CSU campus by bus and also provide the kids with a healthy snack. We are currently seeking more volunteer tutors. If you would like to volunteer or learn more about this program, please contact Dr. Christine Jones at 491-2115.

CLTW Institute for Mathematics Teachers

The research fellows of the Center for Learning and Teaching in the West returned to fascilitate another summer institute for secondary mathematics teachers. The course was called Calculus Concepts and focused on rate of change, area under a curve, and other extensions. (Learn more)

GetWET 2009

The GetWET Observatory and Science Park is gaining popularity and has seen an increase in use. This year, we are adding two new instruments and emphasizing data analysis. Our summer PD for science teachers is going to focus on the greater watershed and soils.

The popularity of the GetWET program is timely because there is an increasing awareness nationwide in the importance of getting kids to do authenitc science outdoors. To learn more about this program, contact Dr. Andrew Warnock (491-2845), or visit the GetWET website.

SciTrek

Students came from all across the country to participate in SciTrek learned how to be independent critical thinkers, assess scientific literature, design and execute critical experiments, and interpret and represent results of complex scientific experiments. Research was conducted in state-of-the-art learning studios using Small-Scale Science techniques with personal mentoring from Dr. Stephen Thompson and other first-class researchers and professors. (Learn more)

Summer Vet

The Summer Vet Program is a student's ticket to the world of veterinary medicine! For students who are serious about becoming a veterinarian, this is a super opportunity to look into the real and sometimes gritty field of veterinary medicine. Through presentations, demonstrations, laboratories, visits, and in-depth, hands-on activities, students discover what modern veterinary medicine is about. Partcipants meet professors, practitioners, and students in the discipline and have ample opportunity to talk with them. (Learn more)

Exciting New way to bring Small-Scale Chemistry even closer to the Point of Learning

The advent of the Tablet PC opens an exciting new world of possibilities for small-scale science experimentation. A new 20-minute video, featuring Dr. Stephen Thompson, previews just a small sample of the benefits of conducting science experiments directly on the surface of a pen-based Tablet PC. (Download Video) (Learn more)

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CSMATE wins Hewlett Packard Award

The Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology Eduation at Colorado State University was selected as one of 40 two- and four-year colleges and universities nationwide to receive the 2006 HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to transform and improve learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology. During the 2006-07 academic year, grant projects through this program will impact more than 4,000 students. CSMATE will receive an award package of HP products and a faculty stipend valued at more than $69,000. Each of the HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients will use HP wireless Tablet PC technology to enhance learning in engineering, math, science, computer science or business courses. CSMATE is using the equipment to develop the “Labtop” system for integrating theory and practice in the first-year, science-major general chemistry course. (Press Release)

New FIPSE Grant

With the help of Tablet PCs, students in the first-year integrated chemistry course are engaging in a new, technology-based chemistry which could eventually displace the large lecture/recitation learning strategy in favor of a student-centered, inquiry-based approach.

In the Labtop System, being developed by Dr. Stephen Thompson, Director of CSMATE and a Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State, the Tablet PC is placed at the point of learning. Tablets combine the computational power needed for science and engineering with the portability of paper and the wireless connectivity of a laptop. The Labtop system seamlessly unites lecture, laboratory work, use of instruments, homework and field work, literature searching, modeling, and embedded assessment using interdisciplinary case studies. The Labtop System allows students to develop higher-level critical thinking skills as students design their own experiments integrating well-crafted research questions, robust procedures and the opportunity to strengthen their communication skills.

The research is funded through a $415,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s FIPSE program (Fund to Improve Postsecondary Education). (Press Release)

CSMATE is sponsored by the College of Natural Sciences at Colorado State University