Summer comes and goes in the blink of an eye for the MEM department, which houses three of the major CoE summer programs.

The RETAIN, GK-12 and MSP programs all returned for summer 2007, bringing together teachers from the School District of Philadelphia as well as teachers throughout the Delaware Valley, Drexel College of Engineering graduate students, staff and administrators with the common goal of improving teacher professional development in K-12 STEM education.

This summer, 18 teachers participated in the RETAIN program, 11 teams of teachers and graduate students participated in the Gk-12 program and 31 teachers participated in the MSP program.

RETAIN- The RETAIN program is designed to educate middle-school and high-school mathematics and science teachers from the Delaware Valley in the emerging areas of biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology. Each RET Fellow is paired with a research mentor with whom they spend five weeks collaborating in the laboratory and finding creative ways of implementing their new research experience into their school’s curriculum. Teachers participate in seminars on grant writing, website development, effective presentation techniques, online resources and have the opportunity to attend an industry tour to further understand the implementation of technology in the workplace. At the completion of the program each teacher is required to create a lesson plan that highlights their research experience, a website, a research poster, and a grant sketch. For more information on the RETAIN program please visit http://www.coe.drexel.edu/ret/

GK-12- This innovative program forms Educational Teams of Drexel engineering graduate students (GK-12 Fellows) and teachers from West Philadelphia middle schools in the School District of Philadelphia (GK-12 Teachers) to collaborate in identifying and designing engineering/technology based supportive classroom materials. These materials will serve as contextual vehicles through which the presentation of fundamental scientific and mathematical concepts to middle school students will be enhanced. The GK-12 Fellows represent each of the six departments in the College of Engineering. Fellows will assist the Teachers in implementing the material developed over the summer into innovative classrooms lessons and experiments during the academic year. Fellows will spend 10 hours per week in the classroom alongside the teachers. The Fellows will be assisting the Teachers in their classroom while the Teachers serve as pedagogical mentors to the Fellows. For more information please visit www.coe.drexel.edu/gk12

MSP- The Philadelphia Math and Science Partnership summer program is open to fifth and sixth grade teachers of science. This two week summer program prepares teachers of science for the first marking period content for the School District of Philadelphia’s new science curriculum. Drexel faculty and staff provide grade-specific demonstrations, labs, and lectures related to the content, programs and materials associated with the curriculum. The content focuses on Solar Energy and Landforms. Teachers are introduced to creative ways to incorporate engineering into their science curriculum. For more information please visit www.coe.drexel.edu/msp