January 15, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY
SUMMARY -- New program at Calvin to groom local middle school students as
scientists kicks off on January 20 and also announces East Grand Rapids Middle
School Teacher as after-school programs coordinator.
Contact Rebecca Martin at ram22@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/triage-coordinator.htm
Rebecca Martin, an energetic science teacher at East Grand Rapids Middle
School, has been hired to coordinate the after-school programs for the new
TRIAGE middle school science program at Calvin College, an effort funded by a
$720,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
TRIAGE (which stands for Team Researchers in a GLOBE-al Environment) will kick
off on Saturday, January 20 with an open house at the Bunker Interpretive
Center at Calvin for the 100 or so students part of this first group. That
open house will be held from 1:30 to 3 pm and will bring together not only all
of the students in the program, but also their parents as well as teachers,
Calvin personnel and others connected to TRIAGE.
Calvin is partnering on TRIAGE with Forest Hills Public Schools, Grand Rapids
Catholic Schools, Grand Rapids Christian Schools, Grand Rapids Public Schools
and Wyoming Public Schools as well as with a quintet of area business partners
(Meijer Botanical Gardens and Sculpture Park, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute,
Timmermans Environmental, West Michigan Environmental Action Council and the
West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum).
Martin is a native of Grand Rapids and a 1991 graduate of Forest Hills Central
High School who went on to earn her bachelor's degree from Hillsdale and her
master's from Aquinas. She has been part of the East Grand Rapids Middle
School science program for some 10 years, but is taking a leave of absence this
year and was convinced to take on the new parttime post at Calvin.
She will be a central figure in the college's effort to help area middle
school students develop authentic scientific research skills and thinking as
part of a comprehensive focus on environmental sustainability, and she can't
wait to begin.
"To get this kind of opportunity both personally and professionally was too
good to pass up," she says. "The TRIAGE program has amazing potential and I am
so thrilled to be part of it. It's going to be great to get started this
month."
Following the January 20 open house the program will begin in earnest on
Monday, January 29 when the first group of middle school scientists comes to
Calvin's Bunker Center to begin their after-school research efforts (which will
be coordinated by Martin).
Rachel Sytsma Reed, an assistant professor in education at Calvin, is the
program coordinator. A former middle and high school science teacher, whose
many degrees include a doctorate in educational psychology and a master's in
chemical oceanography, she says the time is right for this project for West
Michigan.
"I feel like all of the pieces of the puzzle are right here in West Michigan,"
she says. "There is so much happening right now. This area has the potential to
be an amazing scientific hotspot. I believe TRIAGE is part of that puzzle and
can make a big contribution to what's happening here."
Contact Martin at ram22@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/triage-coordinator.htm
-end-
Received on Mon Jan 15 09:39:49 2007
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