Developing Educational Leadership in Computational Science

National
Computational
Science
Education
Consortium

Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE Computer Society
East Carolina University
Krell Institute
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Ohio Supercomputer Center
Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.
University of Alabama-Huntsville

Project Summary

Developing Educational Leadership in Computational Science

The National Computational Science Leadership program is open to all secondary level Mathematics and Science teachers, regardless of teachers' previous knowledge of and background in computational science. Participating teachers are not required to have an in-depth knowledge of computer science, as these skills will be taught as a part of this leadership program. The goal of this program is to provide participating teachers with the confidence, professional development, and skills required to integrate high performance computing technology into the educational curriculum.

National Computational Science Leadership Program

The National Computational Science Leadership Program is intended to build a national reservoir of secondary education teachers who can effectively utilize computational science to enhance science and math education. Furthermore, it builds upon the programs and track record of the national Supercomputing Conference by integrating a teacher enhancement/leadership component as a fundamental part of the 2000 and 2001 SC (Supercomputing) Conferences (http://www.sc2000.org/) and the respective Education Programs held during those conferences. The overall goal of this program is the development of a core group of teachers who, through a rich and stimulating environment including interactions with leading computational scientists and year-round support, will reach out from within their school districts to share their knowledge and expertise with other teachers. Furthermore, to extend the reach of this project beyond the boundaries of the participants, information and best practices will be collected and shared through the development of a national clearinghouse of ideas, curricula materials, and instructional applications generated by participating teachers and including reference materials made available through other NSF grants. One hundred teachers for SC2000 and one hundred for SC2001, participating in teams of four teachers each, will be selected from a national pool of teacher applicant teams. These teacher teams may come from one school district or from several cooperating school districts as needed to make up the four participants required for each teacher team. The teams should be formed around two science teachers, one mathematics teacher, and one school administrator.

The National Computational Science Leadership Program is funded by a $1 million National Science Foundation grant that provides adequate travel allowances to the teacher participants in this program. These allowances will cover reasonable costs for coach airfare to project meetings (including the SC2000 Conference and a Summer Institute), ground transportation, lodging, meals, course instructional materials, and substitute teacher support. Teacher participants will be responsible for any costs that exceed these allowances. Additionally, program coordinators are also applying for supplemental grants to provide laptops, Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts, and additional release time to teacher participants. Special emphasis will be placed on providing additional support to low wealth schools and districts.

What is Computational Science?

In broad terms, computational science is using computers to analyze scientific problems. Thus we distinguish it from computer science, which is the study of computers and computation, and from theory and experiment, the traditional forms of science. Computational science seeks to gain understanding principally through the analysis of mathematical models on high performance computers. The term computational scientist has been coined to describe scientists, engineers and mathematicians who apply high performance computer technology in innovative and essential ways to advance the state of knowledge in their respective disciplines.

Team Member Benefits

Teacher member benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Paid attendance at the SC2000 Conference (November 4-10, 2000);
• Paid attendance at a two-week summer workshop at the University of Alabama Huntsville with research excursions to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (July 2001);
• Computational science leadership skill development;
• Participation in web cast seminars, computational science and leadership topics, and on-line intra-classroom experiences including "live national hands-on laboratory exercises"; and
• Development of learning modules that will become a permanent part of the national online computational science resource repository.

Teacher Selection Criteria

Teacher teams selected to participate in this grant will be chosen from a national pool. Teams may be from one school district or from several cooperating school districts as needed. Each team is to include two science teachers, one mathematics teacher and one administrator. The selection criteria include:

• A letter signed by the school principal or school administrator stating that the support required in the "School District Requirements" section will be provided to the teachers;
• Evaluation of a submitted portfolio of science and/or mathematics modules developed by members of the teacher team; and
• Teaching awards/honors received by team members.

Teacher Team Requirements

Each team will be required to:

• Generate a minimum of one two-week course module or replacement unit utilizing computational science methods for use in their classroom and use a substantial portion of a module developed by another teacher (not necessarily on their own team);
• Development of a "lessons learned" plan for dissemination of information within the teacher participants' home school system;
• Develop an awareness plan within his/her home school system;
• Provide coordination for professional development activities involving the local leadership group within the school system;
• Participate in web cast seminars on computational science and leadership topics and on-line intra-classroom experiences in a "live national hands-on laboratory exercise";
• Provide 60 hours of professional development/mentoring to at least three others in his/her school district over the life of this project to improve leadership and computational science skills; and
• Add developed learning modules to the national repository managed by this project.

School District Requirements

Each school district is required to provide the following support for the teacher participants.

• Each school district is to provide each participating teacher a laptop computer for use during this project. These laptops, with the required applications software are expected to cost $2,250.
• Each teacher is to be provided or have access to an individual Internet Service Provider (ISP) account, which includes access to the Internet, and an email account. These accounts are commonly available from national ISPs such as AOL, Prodigy, and AT&T. If the school district provides Internet access and email accounts for each teacher both at home and at school, then a separate Internet account is not necessary for the teachers. This is expected to cost $250/teacher.
• The school is to provide the teachers opportunities during the school year to present what they have learned during this project to their peers on teacher workdays.
• The participating school district agrees to provide each participating teacher leader in their district with one CEU for every 10 contact hours involving this program.

The schools selected to participate in this project will represent a diverse student population from rural, urban, underserved, low wealth and less advantaged school systems. If your school's participation in this project is dependent upon a supplemental grant(s), please be sure to check the appropriate boxes in the "Supplemental Grant Request" section of the online Teacher Team-Application form, described below.

Online Teacher Team-Application Form

If your school or district is interested in supporting one or more teams (4 participants/team) in the National Computational Science Leadership Program, please submit an electronic Teacher Team-Application form, which can be found online at http://www.ecu.edu/si/te/te_app.cfm. Keep in mind that a team of four will be required before the application form can be completed. First consideration will be given to completed applications submitted by June 16, 2000.

SC Conference - Topics and Lab Focus

Computational Science in Practice
Grand Challenges
Constructing models
History of computational science
Demonstration of computer models at work
Lab: Hands-on laboratory with simple models

Using Computational Science Models
Introduction to chemistry, physics, & environmental science models
Previously funded NSF projects in computational science
Lab: Hands-on laboratory to try out model programs and computational models

Leadership and Educational Standards
Mathematics and science standards
Applicability to units of practice
Knowledge, skills, and practice
Developing local unit staff development workshops
Lab: Hands-on laboratory to try out model programs and computational models

Using the IT Infrastructure
Videoconference resource training
Accessing remote computing resources
Tour of university research exhibits and examples of computational science
Lab: Hands-on laboratory to access remote resources and support center

Team Plan Development
Project design, setting goals, and objectives
Implementation planning - Measurement
Skill development in confidence, competence, listening, motivation
Lab: Hands-on laboratory to access remote resources and support center

Summer Institute - Topics and Lab Focus

Review SC Conference Material Learned
Review of computational science/models
Accessing remote resources
Lab: Hands-on laboratory for computational model experimentation

Leadership Skill Building
National Board Certification
Portfolio development
Lab: Hands-on laboratory for computational model experimentation

Design of Curriculum Modules
Design principles
Existing computational science modules
Copyright issues
Lab: Teams break out to design a curriculum module

Developing a Unit of Practice
Principles of lesson design
Design of a curriculum module
Lab: Teams break out to design a curriculum module

Practical Applications
High performance computing (HPC) center tour
Real world HPC applications
Lab: How To Conduct virtual tours in the classroom

Computer Ethics
Internet Standards of practice
Security primer
Computer acceptable use

Curriculum Module Design Review
Refining curriculum module design
Institute leaders meet teams to review design

Role Playing and Evaluation
Leadership/staff development workshops
Self-evaluation/ assessment methods

Curriculum Modules Development
Teacher teams develop models for presentation
Timelines
Designing staff development

Curriculum Module Development
Lab: Teacher teams develop models for presentation
Presentation of curriculum modules

Questions? Send e-mail to cal@ucar.edu
Broken links? Send e-mail to dpetter@ucar.edu

LAST UPDATED: 06/01/2000