Work in progress — Classroom and distance components of a GK12 program placing graduate students in high school classrooms

As our national mathematics and science scores continue to fall below expectations, creating environments that engage the professional scientific and engineering communities in public education becomes increasingly important. Most mathematics and science teachers in high schools do not have a professional background in mathematics, science, or engineering (STEM) fields; thus, students in the public education system rarely interact with STEM professionals, and know little about the opportunities for careers in these fields. The NSF GK12 program supports graduate students who spend time in K12 classrooms for the purposes of learning to share their research with a nontechnical community. In year 3 of this specific GK12 program, a distance component was implemented by placing the graduate student in the classroom, virtually, through online streaming video. This paper discusses the technology, both hardware and software, that is used in this arrangement, as well as the challenges associated with implementing the technology in the school. This paper also describes the approach taken in designing and deploying an interdisciplinary learning module via distance. Finally, the paper describes the plans for continued distance components of the program.