Effective Models for Business/School Partnerships

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The Saturday Academy, an adjunct of the Oregon Graduate Center which offers extra-school courses for motivated pre-college science students, will join with the Business/Education Compact of Washington County (WA) in three programs. (1) Community-based science and technology teacher enhancement programs. As with previously successful student courses, they will be taught by a variety of professionals at sites throughout the area, ranging from industries to academic institutions. Classes will be informal, participative, stress currently important areas of science and technology, and provide material for teachers to incorporate into their own teaching. (2) An invention-oriented creativity and design competition for middle school students. Teachers will be trained in techniques of encouraging creativity through the process of invention. Businesses will be recruited to sponsor the event and provide technical personnel to work with students in developing inventions. The inventions will be displayed and judged at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. (3) Computer networking to link science teachers in other parts of the state to the Saturday Academy and to each other. This will be initiated at four existing satellites of the Academy using existing computer facilities to define how such networking can best be utilized and provide a model for future expansion. Cost sharing by the partners will total 108% of the NSF funding.