May 16, 2001
Bicycle design, water testing and colonies on Mars: Middle school students push math, science boundaries during first PRIME Showcase
WHO:
University of Washington students, middle school teachers and their students at five area schools involved in the Partnership for Research in Inquiry-based Math, Science and Engineering Education, or PRIME, a program to develop hands-on projects to learn math and science.
WHAT:
The first PRIME Showcase, an opportunity for the partnerships to demonstrate the projects they’ve developed together during the year.
WHEN: Thursday, May 17, from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Mary Gates Hall commons area on the UW Seattle campus.
DETAILS:
Twelve PRIME teams will be on hand at Mary Gates Hall to show off projects they developed during the school year to explore various aspects of math and science. The endeavors include a bicycle on which students designed and built the gearing to compete in the “Race over Rainier,” a fictitious bicycle race patterned after the Tour de France; a field project in which students tested the water quality at some local wetlands to determine if the habitats were healthy or polluted; and a life sciences inquiry in which students designed a colony on Mars to explore concepts of biological energy exchange. Funded by the National Science Foundation, PRIME seeks to promote learning among middle school students, teachers and the UW students selected as PRIME fellows. In addition to enriching the teaching of math, science and engineering for schoolchildren, the program exposes university math and science students to teaching with the goal of building a cadre of scientists and engineers !
who will enter the workforce willing and able to improve the quality of K-12 education.
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For more information, contact UW Dean of Engineering Denice Denton, (206) 543-0340 or denton@engr.washington.edu. Details about PRIME can be found on the Web at www.engr.washington.edu/prime/index.html
