Pellissippi State leads $1.2 million program for teacher training in math, science

Pellissippi State will administer a new $1.25 million three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to support math and science instruction for future elementary schoolteachers.

The grant will be shared by seven community colleges and two universities: Pellissippi State, Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Cleveland State Community College, Motlow State Community College, Northeast State Community College, Roane State Community College and Walters State Community College, and East Tennessee State University and Tennessee Technological University.

The funds will be used by the schools to provide professional development and classroom materials for new course development and to establish specific teaching and education-related math, science and technology courses.

The program is known officially as the Tennessee Board of Regents Teacher Preparation Collaborative.

The College developed the concept behind the partnership and spearheaded the NSF proposal.

“This will have a dramatic overall effect on math and science teacher instruction throughout East Tennessee well into the future,” said James Kelley, head of the Natural and Behavioral Sciences Department. “Each school will receive $23,000 per year. This is a tremendous opportunity for teacher education.”

In 2003-04, Pellissippi State received a three-year, $300,000 NSF grant to develop innovative ways to teach math and science in kindergarten through sixth grade.

That grant was used to help launch the College’s Teacher Education program and continues to support an advanced technological education-teaching partnership with Tennessee Tech.

The program, called the Math and Science Teacher Education Resource (MASTER), offers an opportunity for students to remain at Pellissippi State while they earn a bachelor’s degree in education from Tennessee Tech.

One benefit of the $300,000 grant, says Kelley, has been an increase in interest among students in teacher training courses. Before the partnership, the College had 20-30 students in education. Now, there are more than 400.

The goal of the Teacher Education program, says coordinator Meg Moss, is to equip students with both practical and philosophical understanding before they go on to earn a bachelor’s degree and then go into the classroom. With such learning tools, math and science concepts and phenomena are made real, so they become less abstract to students.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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