- Year 2019
- NSF Award #1758497
- Registration Master Teaching Fellow
- First Name Julie
- Last Name Wittenborn-Sikorski
- Discipline Other: General science/special education & STEM
- Institution SiUC
- School Name and District Currently Teaching Murphysboro CUSD 186
Abstract
Rural schools are often underfunded and so unable to offer their students many of the advantages that well-funded schools have available. Through our involvement in the Noyce Community of Problem Solvers at Southern Illinois University, we have been able to establish informal partnerships among over 10 schools in our region. Support from our ‘Noyce Community’ has allowed us to develop and foster partnerships that bring much-needed resources and expertise to our rural part of the country. For example, teachers have purchased and shared costly teaching equipment such as a StarLab portable planetarium and a stream table. Teachers volunteer their time and assistance by visiting each other’s schools and helping teach in areas out of the expertise of the classroom teacher. Teachers also collaborate on multi-district projects such as preparing students for the 2017 total solar eclipse and installing native plant gardens. Others provide resources that enable students to learn in unique and memorable ways that are not accessible to most schools, e.g., borrowed moon rocks from NASA. Through the synergism of our network of teachers, we have supported each other in developing and implementing new and innovative ways of engaging students in hands-on, interdisciplinary science.
