CRMSE Outreach Efforts

San Diego Mathematics Project – Lisa Lamb is PI, and major efforts were put forward under Melissa Soto’s leadership to provide professional development to 25 kindergarten-3rd grade teachers from 6 San Diego County school districts.  The professional development, Cognitively Guided Instruction, provides three six-hour summer and seven two-hour after school sessions (32 hours total) focused on teachers investigating children’s mathematical thinking and then learning how to base instruction on the students’ thinking.

FEDCO Grants for Teachers - Randy Philipp is PI on this outreach project that supports local teachers by funding hands-on classroom projects or field trips that bring “learning to life.”

SDSU Science & Engineering Sampler and Explore SDSU on March 18, 2017 – CRMSE faculty Matt Anderson, Alexander Chizhik, and Donna Ross participated this year.

Discrete Mathematics Partnership: SDSU and Sweetwater Union High School District - Led by CRMSE faculty, Ovie Soto, Randy Philipp and Bill Zahner, the goal of this California Mathematics Readiness Challenge Initiative (CMRCI) program is to address the problem of college mathematics remediation through supporting the collaborative implementation and evaluation of grade 12 mathematics experiences that are designed to prepare high school students for placement into college-level mathematics courses. San Diego State and Sweetwater are using the grant to design and implement a discrete mathematics course for high school seniors. The project builds on the existing infrastructure of the SDSU-Sweetwater Compact for Success, and this work provides a structure for faculty and teachers to collaborate around designing a course to better prepare prospective students, many of whom will enroll at SDSU. 

NOYCE Project Learn– CRMSE Faculty have led two NSF NOYCE projects.  Involved faculty include Lisa Lamb, Randy Philipp, Susan Nickerson, David Pullman, Donna Ross, Kathy Williams, and Meredith Vaughn.   The SDSU Noyce Mathematics and Science Master Teaching Fellowship Program funded from the National Science Foundation with an additional $500,000 in matching funds from Qualcomm, Inc., continued in its fourth year of work with teachers, including 12 newly recruited teachers for the last two years. This program supports exceptional secondary mathematics and science teachers as they develop in their teaching and emerge into teacher leaders. Supporting Science Teaching: SDSU’s Noyce Science Interns and Scholars Program, a second NSF Noyce grant is recruiting science majors from the College of Sciences to enter SDSU’s Math-Science teacher credential cohort.

Aztec Science Camp– Hosted on SDSU’s campus, the Aztec Science Camp was started with seed money from the President's Leadership Fund and is one component of the NSF SDSU Noyce Scholars and Interns Program, for undergraduate science education. The camp was overseen by CRMSE Faculty (Lisa Lamb, Donna Ross & Meredith Vaughn) and taught by SDSU Multiple Subject credential students and undergraduate science and engineering majors.  Between 2014 and 2019, the camp ran two, week-long sessions for children ages 9-14. Aztec Science Camp is no longer being offered.

Fundraising:  This year CRMSE continued to work with Megan Beardsley, Director of Development for the SDSU College of Education, and Stacy Carota, Director of Development for the SDSU College of Sciences, to enhance our fundraising efforts to support our outreach programs.  In 2016-17, CRMSE received $2,615 to support the Distinguished Lecturer Series; $1,928 to offset SEEE Seminar Series expenses, and $6,500 in undesignated gifts. CRMSE also worked with the MSED program to shift the Sowder Funds into a quasi-endowment fund, thereby making possible the accrual of interest, resulting in more than $5,000 of additional funds available for the MSED program.  

Communications:  Our online contact database continues to be updated and expanded to well over 2,000 email addresses.  We continue to expand our website and social presence on Facebook, petition media presence and coverage at events as appropriate, and collaborate with University Development.