CCU professors receive grant to train Marion County teachers in robotics
A team of CCU education and science professors will lead an initiative to train middle school teachers in Marion County to teach robotics as part of the county’s math and science curriculum, thanks to a $150,000 grant from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education.
The purpose of the 18-month project is to integrate technology into the curriculum of a high-needs category school district, advancing the state mandate to provide more instruction in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Approximately 20 Marion County teachers are expected to participate. The centerpiece of the initiative is a set of five-day workshops that will be held in the summers of 2016 and 2017.
Members of the CCU team are Patricia Jones, director of program evaluation and accreditation in CCU’s Spadoni College of Education and team leader of the project; Louis J. Rubbo, associate professor of physics and astronomy; Corey Lee, assistant professor of instructional technology; Joe Winslow, professor of instructional technology; Alex Fegely, lecturer in instructional technology; and Bryan Lemon, teaching associate in computing sciences. The team also includes Blake Vaught, a computer science teacher at the Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology in Myrtle Beach; Brooke Sullivan, a fifth-grade teacher at Forestbrook Elementary; and Diane Sullivan, a third-grade teacher at Carolina Forest Elementary School.