FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant that, with matching funds from the University of Arkansas, provides $2.75 million to develop inquiry-based science and engineering education in Arkansas middle schools over a six-year period.

The program, entitled The KIDS Program: Teaching the Science in Everyday Life, will each year sponsor nine University of Arkansas Graduate Fellows and nine to 12 local teachers from Fayetteville, Springdale, and Winslow to participate in a six-week summer program and related teaching activities during the school year.

KIDS (K-12, I Do Science) is an interdisciplinary program focused on electronics and optics that will initiate a new effort to teach mathematics, science, and technology in middle schools in Arkansas. It is based on the inquiry, or "learning through doing," paradigm. This is the premise that students who explore their own curiosity, reach for their own ideas, and engage in their own experiments, are experiencing inquiry and innovation and are learning science. The project goal is to develop inquiry-based physics education in Arkansas middle schools.

University of Arkansas physics, electrical engineering, and microelectronics and photonics graduate students will partner with middle school teachers to teach 6th and 7th grade mathematics and science. Both graduate students and teachers will undergo extensive training during which team building will be actively developed. Then, as a team, the teachers and graduate students will develop inquiry-based laboratory experiments, integrating optics and photonics, with teachers providing the connection to the appropriate state standards and curriculum. Graduate students will spend at least 10 hours per week in the classrooms during the academic year teaching these modules with the teachers. In addition, graduate students will come into the University laboratories twice a year to participate in workshops in which they build and characterize a chip and a laser. Parents and school administrators will be provided with programs that will help them to understand inquiry-based learning and their role in supporting teachers and students learning science.

The outcome of the KIDS program will be middle school teachers who have learned the value of, and developed the skill to implement, inquiry-based instruction in mathematics, science, and engineering. The effort is designed to result in a new generation of middle school students who are self-confident and motivated to learn science, have a thriving curiosity, see a direct connection between learning and everyday phenomena, work successfully in teams, communicate and present their ideas skillfully, and are excited and prepared to further their knowledge and interest in science, mathematics and engineering.

Additionally, the KIDS program will begin an effort in Arkansas to develop and graduate fellows into scientists who will take a greater interest in teaching and communicating science. They will begin their careers with a deeper understanding of their science, a greater ability to express it to others, and a passion to improve K-12 education in their new communities.

The proposal was developed and submitted to the National Science Foundation by the program team which includes Denise Airola Fayetteville Public School science and math curriculum fellow; Caroline Beller assistant professor of education; Sarah Faitak and Lynne Hehr, K-12 outreach specialists; Art Hobson, professor emeritus of physics; Greg Salamo, UA professor of physics; Gay Stewart, associate professor of physics; Ronna Turner, evaluation and testing expert; and Ken Vickers, microelectronics & photonics graduate program director.