Our History
Through a 5-year $2M grant from the National Science Foundation awarded to the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2005, we have expanded a successful GK-12 program that was originally focused on engineering problem solving to a cross-campus program with the broader theme of authentic inquiry in all NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
As part of the process of institutionalizing GK-12 at USC, program management has transferred to the Center for Teaching Excellence. This includes the development of the Partners in Inquiry (Pi) Program, which has the same goals as GK-12 but is less time intensive for the participating graduate students.
Every year of our project, the number of locally-supported Pi Fellows increased as the number of NSF-funded GK-12 Fellows decreased. Our GK-12 and Pi programs both partnered STEM graduate students with middle school teachers in local schools to work together to adapt, adopt and develop inquiry-based, hands-on and developmentallyappropriate activities and lessons for science and engineering-related topics. Fellows’ teaching and communication skills are improved, their Teacher Partners’ content and science process skills are enhanced, and the children’s science and mathematics education is improved. Between 2005 and 2010, these programs are estimated to have impacted 95 fellows, 87 teachers, and over 9000 middle school students.