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Sinclair launches STEM institute for area educators

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By Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writer 2:49 PM Tuesday, June 14, 2011

MASON — Sinclair Community College’s campus here is using nearly a million dollars in grant money to help teachers lay a foundation for the future.

The Courseview Campus Center on Monday launched the Warren County STEM Institute, to offer science, technology, engineering, and math training to nearly 46 high school teachers from all Warren County school districts, the Warren County Educational Service Center and Lakota schools in Butler County.

A $840,000 National Science Foundation grant, the first one Warren County has ever received from the NSF, will help fund courses not only this summer, but for the next two, as well, according to George Sehi, the center’s executive dean.  The goal of the two-week program is to help teachers integrate real-world situations into their curriculum and to foster greater use of technology to increase teacher effectiveness. For the hands-on portion of the training, teachers spend one week at Courseview and one week at Kings High School.

“The stakes are high but I have every reason to believe that with the program we have put into place, we’ll be able to show significant improvement in the number of students coming out of high school and pursuing STEM career fields in Warren County and other places,” Sehi said.

The institute will be self-sustained and self-sufficient, even after the grant concludes, he said.

Laying a solid foundation for students in STEM subjects is “the key for our workforce of the future,” according to Steve Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College.

“STEM and STEM education is an international issue,” he said. “We can’t connect to that international issue unless we’re here locally ...and bringing that international issue alive and home to our region.”

Sinclair College has been awarded more National Science Foundation initiatives than any other nationwide, Johnson said.

Heather Marshall, a biology teacher at Springboro High School, said the technology portion of the STEM institute is what appealed the most to her.

“I want to bring more technology to my classroom,” she said. “That’s something I feel I need to get stronger in.”

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