“It’s energizing to work with the teachers and to go into the schools and work directly with the students,” said Assistant Dean for Student Recruitment & International Programs, Bryan Hill.
The University’s Science and Engineering Partnership, or UASEP, have teamed up with the Arkansas Department of Education for the past ten years to promote science.
This year the team will work with a 3 year, 1.7 million-dollar grant to teach K-4 teachers new science standards. Hill says it’s all about raising up future scientist and engineers.
“Unless we have great teachers in the K-12 schools preparing math and science students, then we’re not going to have good engineers entering our program,” said Hill.
Rogers Public Schools are one of the districts connected with the grant and K-4 Curricular Specialist, Beth Pesnell says teachers are excited the U of A is making the difference.
“We are working with Arkansas standards, Arkansas ideas, and I think that holds a lot for teachers that they see that I could really go back and do this,” said Pesnell.
The team in total is working with about 150 teachers, not only in the Northwest Arkansas area but in the southern, eastern and western Arkansas areas.
“By doing that it brings a lot of diversity to the grant,” said Hill.
Hill also says this grant will affect more than just the next three years.
“We need more engineers, we need more scientists across the U.S.. But here in Arkansas it’s critically important,” said Hill.
And Pesnell says that giving the students opportunities that she never had will give the kids a better chance to succeed.
“We are going to see students excel in areas where we would have not seen that happen,” said Pesnell.
-Andrew Brummett