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New Program Launches Math and Science on the Wings of Space Flight

Daytona Beach, Fla., Jan. 27, 2004 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and its partners have joined forces in a new five-year project that will train 10,000 high school teachers how to make math and science more appealing by using human space flight and exploration materials in their classrooms.

The project, part of an Embry-Riddle initiative called TeachSpace (www.erau.edu/teachspace/), will offer an intensive three-day workshop to talented, motivated teachers of high school math, science, and technology. Teachers selected for the three-day summer workshops will receive housing, meals, a $100 daily stipend, and one hour of graduate credit.

Workshops for up to 20 teachers each will be held on the campuses of Embry-Riddle. The first workshops will take place in July 2004 on the university's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, 50 miles north of the Kennedy Space Center.

During the following four summers, workshops also will be held on Embry-Riddle's campus in Prescott, Ariz., and at selected teaching centers in its Extended Campus network throughout the United States.

Teachers will be selected for their teaching abilities and potential to return to their schools and help other teachers to apply the materials and techniques in the classroom. Over a five-year period 10,000 teachers will be trained.

"With this teachers-teaching-teachers concept, we believe the program will eventually reach one million high school students," says Rodney Piercey, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus. He is one of the originators of the program.

Other partners in the project include Teaching Science and Technology Inc., which will develop the format, activities, and multimedia teaching materials for the workshops. McGraw-Hill Publishers will publish workshop materials and maintain a teacher support website. The project is supported in part for the first year through a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 28,000 students annually through the master level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 130 centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.