December 2006 VOLUME 3 NO. 3
SMI Launches Courses, Programs to Prepare Teachers
and Future Students
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Two young Ph.D. scientists met last year in the prestigious American Academy for the Advancement of Science Washington, D.C., internship program. Microbiologist Krista Venecia interned for Congressman Pete Stark, working on education for minorities. Applied mathematician Mayya Tokman worked for the State Department on international initiatives to advance inquiry-based science education.
The two realized their strengths could work together for the benefit of science and math education in California. Tokman had already accepted a faculty position at UC Merced and knew the university was looking for a coordinator for the Science and Math Initiative (SMI), a UC systemwide program aiming to train 1,000 new K-12 teachers.
Venecia landed the staff job, and Tokman agreed to be the faculty coordinator. The first SMI courses begin in January.
“We’ll prepare students who are passionate about math and science to enter credentialing programs,” Venecia explained. “They can explore teaching at different grade levels as they gain experience with the latest teaching methods.”
UC Merced’s SMI program will train students in inquiry-based learning, the teaching method Tokman worked on in her State Department job.
“Inquiry-based learning means learning science and math not through memorization – students aren’t computers, after all – but from the perspective of asking questions,” Tokman explained. “The best math and science teaching takes students through the process of asking a question, forming a hypothesis, gathering data, reasoning about that data and finally coming to a conclusion.”
This approach reinforces the value of math as well as general literacy and communication skills, she added.
Students in UC Merced’s program will begin presenting inquiry-based lessons in local fifth- and eighth-grade classrooms next semester. Eventually, the program will offer exposure to classrooms in elementary, middle and high schools.
But Tokman and Venecia’s plans don’t stop there. A summer math-and-science institute might begin as soon as summer 2007, bringing high school students to campus to work with UC Merced students as mentors to learn math and science. The program might host competitions like the Science Bowl, where students vie for supremacy in activities like hydrogen-fuel-cell car races.
In the future, they even hope to add an in-service component for teachers who are already in their careers. And in the very long term, this program should help to prepare more Valley students to walk the halls of UC Merced as college students in math, science and engineering themselves.