UA, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School Launch Partnership to Advance Science Education

Akron, Ohio, Dec. 11, 2002 The University of Akron and St. Vincent-St. Mary High School have established a partnership to provide the high school's students and teachers access to resources available at the University while giving unique support to students and professors in the University's College of Education and Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences.

The program provides a new opportunity for students from the College of Education to gain experience teaching high school students using the inquiry-based/constructivist model methods for teaching science.

The program also is designed to advance science education for high school students so they are better prepared for college.

Our joint Partners in Progress program is an important step to advance science education in America. Our nation must increasingly prepare its citizens to have the scientific literacy required in the knowledge economy, says Dr. Luis M. Proenza, president of The University of Akron.

This program will help to enhance our academic excellence, and will help our students advance their post-high school academic careers, says David V. Rathz, headmaster of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.

Through the program, the high school students will have the opportunity to join science classes and to help in research programs at the University, and plans include the creation of a Science Inquiry Laboratory at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School with high technology communication with The University of Akron.

Meanwhile, the University's students who are studying to be science teachers will have opportunities to get teaching experience at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.

We have been using the inquiry/constructivist model of teaching in our science curriculum since 1993, and we are looking forward to constructing a curriculum for future science teachers to develop skills in inquiry-based science education. One of our goals is to foster the mentoring of high school students by University scientists, says Mary Jo Chionchio, chair of the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School science department and the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School project director for Partners in Progress.

This is the type of cooperative effort we envisioned when we founded the Center for Collaboration and Inquiry at The University of Akron and then provided leadership for the new Northeast Ohio Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education. says Dr. Elizabeth J. Stroble, dean of the College of Education at The University of Akron.

The UA College of Education and the University's Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences jointly founded the Center for Collaboration and Inquiry earlier this year.

The University of Akron and St. Vincent-St. Mary High School will launch their new program in January.