West Virginia Center for Rural Mathematics & Science Integration: A Development Grant Proposal

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal is to build the institutional capactiy and partnerships needed to develop a full center for teaching and learning at West Virginia University. A full center as it is envisioned will focus on issues of importance for teaching science and mathematics in rural settings. These issues include aspects of geography, the importance of indigenous knowledge, infrastructure needs and limited financial resources. The center will also focus on ways to integrate and coordinate the various sciences, mathematics and technology content areas at the middle and high school levels, both within and across subject areas. During this developmental project a study group will be formed to assess the needs at each of eight regional math and science consortia (RMSCs) and another set of study groups will be formed to study issues of concern to the project. These include research on learning and teaching in rural settings, characterizing indigenous knowledge, ways to provide learning support to students with special needs, legislative and industrial support, barriers to implementation, professional development programs and interdisciplinary math and science content.