NSF gives $1.4 million for math and science education

A $1.4 million boost from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help university graduate students, faculty, and staff work with K-12 teachers to improve math and science education.

The new grant will build on the work of UW–Madison’s K-Through-Infinity Professional Development Partnership. The goal of the new grant is to increase the number of participating graduate students and K-12 classrooms. Under the program, teams of graduate students, faculty, staff, and K-12 teachers work to meet goals of participating teachers to improve math and science education in the classroom.

The grant was announced by NSF as part of a national initiative to both help hone the professional skills of university math, science, and engineering students, and to improve K-12 math and science education. The grant to UW–Madison was one of 20 awarded to universities nationwide.

Terry Millar, a UW–Madison Graduate School associate dean, professor of mathematics and a leader of UW–Madison’s K-Through-Infinity program, said the new grant will provide critical support for UW–Madison graduate students working to help improve the teaching of science and math in schools in Wisconsin and beyond.

“The K-Through-Infinity program has already had a measurable impact on the schools that we’ve partnered with,” said Millar. “This new support from NSF will enable us to continue and expand those activities to the benefit of our students and Wisconsin’s K-12 schools.”

Established in 1999, the K-Through-Infinity program is intended to help reinvigorate the way science and math are taught and learned at the primary, middle and high school levels. The program, based around a partnership between UW–Madison graduate students and K-12 teachers, is helping to train a new generation of faculty, teachers, scientists and other professionals to weave the process and excitement of scientific discovery into teaching at all levels, according to Millar.