Institute For Advanced Study Receives NSF Grant For Math-Science Project

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $5.5 million to the Institute for Advanced Study for a project involving its Park City Mathematics Institute. The IAS/PCMI is a summer program that brings mathematics researchers, educators, and post-secondary students together for professional development and study. The three-week sessions are held each year in Park City, Utah; this year’s dates are July 11-31.

The grant, one of the NSF’s Math and Science Partnership awards, is effective over a three-year period. Designated a Prototype Institute Partnership Award, it “places emphasis on improving middle and high school mathematics by emphasizing the development of school-based intellectual leaders and master teachers.” IAS/PCMI’s project will design and implement professional development programs for math teachers in each of three school districts across the country.

Participating Institutions of Higher Education partners are the University of Cincinnati, Texas State University-San Marcos, University of Texas-Pan American, and University of Washington. The K-12 partners are school districts in Cincinnati, Ohio; McAllen, Texas; and Seattle, Washington.

The Project Director is Gail Burrill, Michigan State University. IAS/PCMI program director is C. Herbert Clemens, Ohio State University, and program administrator is Catherine Giesbrecht of the Institute for Advanced Study.

The IAS/PCMI Education Topic for 2004 is From Policy to Practice: Partnerships With School Districts. The IAS/PCMI also focuses on a mathematical research topic each year; this summer it will be Geometric Combinatorics.

The MSP Prototype Institute Partnership Award is part of $216.3 million the NSF is directing toward improvement of math and science education in the United States and Puerto Rico. The partnership grants unite elementary and secondary school teachers; administrators; and college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty in what the NSF calls “an investment in the talent pool of future scientists, engineers and mathematicians.”

For further information on the IAS/PCMI, visit http://www.ias.edu/parkcity.