The GK-12 Fellowships will be awarded for a period of 12 months. Being a GK-12 Fellow is an attractive alternative to the traditional graduate education funding methods of RA, TA, or fellowships. Each Fellow will receive a $30,000 stipend, plus tuition and health insurance. A Faculty Mentor will be assigned to each GK-12 Fellow. The goal is that participation in the GK-12 program, while enriching and enhancing student’s communication skills and knowledge of pedagogy, should not result in a longer time to graduation compared to other students, in spite of the fact that during the school year they will be spending a minimum of 10 hours each week providing direct assistance to K-12 teachers and 5 hours a week preparing themselves outside of the classroom.

Preparation and Ongoing Instruction of GK-12 Fellows and Teachers

The GK-12 Fellows will participate in a training and orientation workshop before the beginning of the Fall semester, as well as in an on-going seminar that will build upon the foundations established during the orientation. The workshop will be organized by Prof. Madsen from the College of Education, while the seminar will be led by Prof. Fleddermann from the School of Engineering. One of the goals of the initial training will be to give Fellows the tools and confidence to work effectively in the schools; school district teachers and other appropriate personnel will conduct this part of the training. Fellows will learn about the organizational structure of the school district, its identified mission and goals, and the resources currently available for science, math, and technology instruction. Another component of the orientation will provide strategies for working effectively with teachers and students; this will develop concurrently with discussions based on the observations Fellows make in the participating classrooms. Fellows will receive training in procedures and expectations – both legal and professional – for working with children in the public school setting. Fellows will be introduced to the district’s standards for math and science and will identify initial ways in which optics and photonics activities can help students attain those standards. Basic concepts of child development and effective pedagogy – with special focus on strategies for working with diverse populations – will be woven throughout the orientation.
In order to act as resources to K-12 teachers, the GK-12 Fellows must establish a working relationship with the teachers and the school community that is based on mutual respect between the teachers and the Fellow. Once the GK-12 Fellow is assigned to a specific school, the identified lead teacher for this program will facilitate the introduction of the Fellow to the school community through staff meetings or other appropriate mechanisms. The Fellow will first spend a brief period of time observing the classes of the participating teachers in order to better understand the instructional approaches, resources, and climate of the school. Together with the participating teachers, the Fellow will develop a specific work plan that is tailored to the needs of the school and abilities of the Fellow. Schedules, expectations, and communication mechanisms will be explicitly defined, although the work plan can be revised as needed. The GK-12 Fellow will use optics and photonics as his/her primary focus, initially looking for connections to the curriculum already in place. It is anticipated the Fellow will work with teachers to produce extensions and modifications of existing lessons to incorporate key concepts and applications of optics and photonics within different units of study. Additionally, Fellows can help revise existing instructional materials to increase the level and frequency of inquiry-based approaches. Finally, the Fellows will be working together wit the teachers and Faculty Mentors on development of new learning modules.

There will be on-going training and support for the Fellows in the form of a bi-weekly seminar led by Prof. Fleddermann that each Fellow will be required to attend. Some sessions, focusing on improved pedagogy, will be led by Prof. Madsen. Lead teachers will also be invited to attend and to lead some sessions. The seminars will be held beyond the teachers’ contracted duty day. This seminar will provide an opportunity for the Fellows to strengthen the network among them by discussing challenges and successes they are experiencing, sharing resources they locate or develop, and reporting on their progress in learning module development. Fellows will share how they are making connections between existing curricula and optics and photonics instruction. Time will be allocated to deepen their understanding of the teaching and learning process as well as address other needs identified by the Fellows or the APS project coordinators.

Development of New Learning Modules

An important task of each Fellow will be the development of new learning modules for novice learners, created in the process of development and implementation of this program. We envisage a novel model for creation of modern learning modules developed jointly by the practicing APS teachers, the GK-12 Fellows, their disciplinary Faculty Mentors specializing in different applications of optics and photonics, and the experts from the College of Education who will assist in preparing unique instructional aids. These additional materials will focus on specific approaches teachers can take to introduce scientific inquiry-based learning in their classrooms, with hands-on investigation and student-directed learning, and will contain examples of formative tests which could be used during the instruction, all in the specific context of a particular classroom activity. The modules will include simple and innovative experiments that integrate recent advances in optics and photonics to present fundamental concepts in physical science, chemistry, or biology, and will encourage critical thinking about the impacts of technology on environment and the implications of advanced scientific research on human lives.

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