SUCCEED is a year-round program
in which North Carolina students, from sixth graders to undergraduates,
participate in authentic research and collaborate with practicing scientists
in computational science fields. The objective of the program, funded
in large part by a grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, is to prepare
students to become leaders in 21st century science and education while
the students create materials that will help others understand topics
in science and mathematics. This program enables about four hundred
students to become part of a learning cycle in which the process of
scientific exploration serves to enable computer-enhanced science and
mathematics explorations for students around the world.
SUCCEED accomplishes its
goals through an integrated, three-phase program. First, students generally
attend summer computational science workshops. Workshops target middle-school
age ranges as well as high-school. Then, students showing an interest
in furthering their knowledge are offered after-school and informal
summer science internships. Students wishing to continue their science
explorations are offered interdisciplinary research apprenticeships
as their aptitudes and interests allow. Students in all three activities
work side-by-side with Shodor's scientists with experienced students
serving as teachers and mentors for younger participants.
SUCCEED permeates all of
Shodor's projects as it is these very same interns who are responsible
for most of the design, maintenance, and implementation of these projects.
Shodor staff mentors interns in the programming of the computational
tools, designing and maintaining most of the Web sites described below,
and even instructing some of the SUCCEED workshops.
SUCCEED-HI (Hearing Impaired)
http://www.shodor.org/succeedhi
Built upon the success of
Project SUCCEED, SUCCEED-HI introduces middle and high school students
with hearing impairments to computational science. The program developed
after senior staff member Bob Gotwals attempted to give a workshop for
deaf middle-school students as part of SUCCEED's first summer of workshops.
Fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), Bob realized an immense language
barrier existed, especially since the terms commonly used in computational
science did not exist in American Sign Language. He organized and wrote
a grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop terms
for use in ASL. In addition the project would fund internships for hearing-impaired
students interested in undergraduate research in computational science.
SUCCEED-HI is a result of that effort.
Curriculum development teams,
consisting of staff from Barton College and the Eastern North Carolina
School for the Deaf, develop grade- and language-appropriate materials
for the use of computational science in science, mathematics, and the
social sciences. Interpreters, Inc. and the National Technical Institute
for the Deaf have joined resources to form a technical signs team to
develop signs for the computational science terms. Shodor's participation
in the realm of computational science ensures widespread dissemination
of products, approaches, methods, and "lessons learned" through
the national computational science community.
Student Science
Enrichment Program Web Site (SSEP)
http://ssep.bwfund.org
Shodor staff
directs the work of interns in developing and hosting the Web site for
the Student Science Enrichment Program. SSEP is an invaluable resource
for middle and high school science educators and their students. Through
SSEP, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund awards grants to other North Carolina
non-profits that provide creative science enrichment activities for
students in grades six through twelve. Through the enrichment program
students have opportunities to experience authentic science through
activities such as assisting with research in chemistry labs, studying
water-quality side-by-side with scientists, or even hands-on course
work using cadaver parts and computer software.
Individual program
awardees are provided grants of up to $60,000 per year for three years.
SSEP awards a total of one million dollars to non-profits annually and
is entirely supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a private foundation
whose mission is to advance the medical sciences by supporting research
and other scientific and educational activities.
As well as hosting
the SSEP Web site, Shodor is also an SSEP awardee. Shodor's SSEP funds
support Project SUCCEED. These funds, in turn, also support SSEP as
it is the student interns from SUCCEED who are responsible for the design
and maintenance of the SSEP site.
Durham Workforce
Partnership
http://www.dwp.org
Shodor houses
and maintains the server for the Durham Workforce Partnership, a job-network
site dedicated to helping Durham students find jobs and perspective
employers to find quality employees. Shodor assisted in developing a
"Modeling Your Career" program available on the site, for
helping students understand what kind of income they will need to support
the lifestyle they want as well as what kind of education they will
need in order to obtain their dream career.
Project RAMP
(Realizing Achievement through Mathematics Performance)
http://www.shodor.org/ramp
RAMP is a Durham
Public Schools initiative funded by National Science Foundation to provide
resources to support the school's math curriculum and to foster communication
with students, parents, and the community. The Web site was designed
and is maintained by student interns at Shodor.
National
Computational Science Leadership Program (NCSLP)
http://www.ncsec.org/
The National
Computational Science Leadership Program, funded in part by a National
Science Foundation grant, is intended to build a national reservoir
of secondary education teachers-leaders who can utilize computational
science effectively to enhance science and math education. In conjunction
with East Carolina University, the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications, the University of Alabama, and other educational and vendor
partners, Shodor is working to develop a core group of teachers to reach
out from within their school districts to share the knowledge acquired
through the training with other teachers. Hence, NCSLP is more than
just training, it is a leadership program. To extend the reach even
beyond the participants' school systems, the models, curricula materials
and instructional applications generated by participating teachers are
made available on the Web site.
Each team of
teachers is expected to produce one module during the course of the
program. The interactive modules contain a numerical modeling program,
suggested lesson plans, and supporting materials. Among the modules
created by the NCSLP 2000 teams:
