Magnet Lab Education Programs Making an Impact in STEM Education

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Magnet Lab Education Programs Making an
Impact in STEM Education

• The Summer 2007 REU program hosted 20 students
  from 15 universities in the United States and
  Puerto Rico 17 mentors from FSU, UF, and LANL
  provided quality research experiences that
  encourage talented science and engineering
  majors. The Summer RET program had 15
  elementary, middle, and high school teacher
  participants working with 11 mentors from the
  Tallahassee site and with Center for Integrating
  Research and Learning (CIRL) staff. The RET
  program provides a rich laboratory for
  educational research that resulted in the
  publication of The Influence of a Teacher
  Research Experience on Elementary Teachers
  Thinking and Instruction in the Journal of
  Elementary Science Education (Dixon, P. Wilke,
  R., 2007).

Shea Kelly, University of Alabama at Huntsville,
explains her research conducted under the
guidance of Prof. Jim Brooks, to participants in
the CIRL-sponsored SciGirls program for middle
and high school girls.
SciGirls I and SciGirls II provided exciting
opportunities for 31 middle and high school girls
to learn about careers in science, real-world
science research, and a variety of disciplines
through a wide range of activities. The program
addresses national concern for encouraging women
in the STEM fields.
Outreach efforts resulted in face-to-face science
experiences for 9,000 PreK-12 schoolchildren in
2006, and this pace is continuing in 2007. New
programs such as Comet Tales and Parents and
Children Doing Science Together and partnerships
with public libraries in four area counties
provided new venues for CIRL to provide quality
science activities. Developing new collaborations
with other area educational facilities created
additional outlets for CIRL workshops,
curriculum, and materials.
CIRL Assistant Director Jose Sanchez accepts a
gift from Zehorit Kapach, a high school teacher
from Ramat Hasharon, Israel, who participated in
the 2007 RET program.