July 31, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Education, in collaboration with the UAB Department of Mathematics and the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s computer science department, has received a three-year, $170,000 grant from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The monies will support the EdGrid Program, which educates prospective teachers on how to use computers and Internet-based investigative techniques to motivate students’ interest in math and science.

EdGrid team members at UAB are: associate professors Tommy Smith, Ed.D., and Lee Meadows, Ph.D., of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Associate Professor Gypsy Abbott, Ph.D., of the Department of Human Studies; and Professor John Mayer, Ph.D., of the Department of Mathematics. The team also includes several area math and science teachers.

As part of the EdGrid program, the UAB team will host a teachers workshop in August to introduce area math and science teachers to the connections between scientific inquiry and mathematical modeling using spreadsheets and other modeling tools. The goal is to help students develop problem-solving skills using computers. The workshop will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, August 7, in the UAB School of Education, Room 149-A, 901 13th Street South.

The NCSA is one of five original centers in the National Science Foundation’s Supercomputer Centers Program and is a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.