KU News Release

KU science, engineering education project receives $2.9 million

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LAWRENCE — University of Kansas researchers and graduate students will work to instill a love for science, math and engineering in K-12 students in Kansas.

The National Science Foundation has announced it will award $2.9 million over five years to the Kansas Partnership for Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education program at KU.

“The goal of the Kansas Partnership project is to assist graduate students to be better communicators of their science with K-12 teachers and students, in particular, and with the broader community of non-scientists, in general,” said Dennis Lane, the program’s leader. Lane is the N.T. Veatch Distinguished Professor the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at KU and associate director of research and education for the KU Transportation Research Institute.

The program will bring hands-on science experiences and cooperative learning into middle school classrooms in Topeka and Kansas City, Kan., Lane said. Highly qualified doctoral students in engineering and science will work closely with sixth-, seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students and teachers to foster student engagement. The project will look at delivering innovative lessons and ideas using active learning and science research based on national and state curriculum standards for those grade levels, Lane said.

Specific aims include “improving the science achievement of at-risk middle school students in two of the largest urban school districts in Kansas,” Lane said. The program also will work to establish a sustainable outreach partnership among participating school districts and KU’s Transportation Research Institute and Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets.

Faculty from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Center for Research on Learning will be closely involved in the project. Steven Case of the Center for Science Education; Joseph Heppert, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry; and Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics, are all playing key roles in the project.

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