This project, a joint effort of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and Teachers College (TC), has two major goals:

1. to increase the number of technologically competent teachers, certified in mathematics and the sciences, available and willing to work in the urban school environment; and
2. to deepen the content knowledge and technology skills of teachers who are already teaching in the public schools.

A unique aspect of this project revolves around the partnership between engineering and education. Over the three years of the project, 8 graduate students in engineering and 4 pedagogy advisors from Teachers College will work with a number of engineering undergraduates and public school teachers to upgrade their technology skills and develop technology-enhanced content modules in math or science. We believe that engineering students' strong backgrounds in science and math, their ubiquitous use of computers and technology, and their constant exposure to real world applications make them excellent candidates for working with middle and high school teachers.

The project aims to provide secondary and middle school teachers with the following resources:

• An understanding of the possibilities for integrating instructional technologies into the curriculum.
• A set of criteria for use when selecting technology resources for the classrooms.
• Up-to-date information on the math and science knowledge being taught, and the research being conducted, at the university level.

Mobile Learning Technologies:
the Probemobile and the Robomobile

During our first year of research, we discovered how robust the use of two instructional technologies -- probes and robotics -- can be for teaching and learning a variety of science, technology, engineering and math topics. Starting with our first summer institute, held in August 2002, our fellows and teachers worked together to build lesson plans to implement both probes and robotics into their classrooms during this Fall and upcoming Spring term. We decided that, because of the limited amount of functional technology available in most of our schools, we needed to be able to bring our technology with us. This led to the development of the concept of a Probemobile and a Robomobile, transportable units that are designed to include all the equipment necessary for a unit using probes or robots.

The Probemobile includes 5 laptops and a selection of Vernier probes, chosen from a large array in our inventory, depending on the curriculum being taught. For instance, an 8th grade middle school teacher might choose an earth sciences set while a high school chemistry teacher might choose the chemistry set.

The Robomobile also includes 5 laptops, plus Lego Mindstorms kits, which students can use to learn technical topics such mechanical engineering, basic programming concepts, mathematics and physics, as well as non-technical subjects such as teamwork and problem solving. As with the probes, robotics supports the notion of constructivism; learning is more effective when students can build something and demonstrate for themselves how and why things operate.

As support for teachers in the project, we are developing a Lesson Plan tool that enables teachers to create and upload lesson plans, link them to the Learning Standards and associated technology tools, and search for lessons created by other teachers; a searchable database of Technology Tools, with reviews by Engineering Fellows and teachers; and an Applets Archive, an annotated collection of java applets for the math and science classroom.

A final aspect of our project is the Engineers-to-the-Classroom component. Here Engineering Fellows are working with one of the Pedagogical Advisors to find effective ways of introducing the Engineering Fellows' research and understandings into the classroom.

Schools and Teachers

The project's major efforts in the first year were directed toward middle and high schools in upper Manhattan. In our second year, we have branched out in several ways.

• First, we are working with our first group of teachers to recruit new teachers from their schools in order to increase the diffusion of the program innovations and outcomes throughout our existing schools.
• Secondly, we have expanded our outreach efforts to additional school districts within New York City, including schools in Brooklyn.
• Third, we have begun to reach out to after-school programs, both in Manhattan and in the Bronx.
• Finally, we have established a partnership with the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a well-established Columbia University program that focuses on environmental teaching and learning.
We are in the process of recruiting a number of teachers from this program for participation later in the year and will organize a joint summer institute with CERC that will enable us to greatly expand our dissemination of the project curriculum.