(542b) SWEET-CREAM: Combining Teacher and Student Centered Activities to Maximize Impact On K-12 Interactions

Over the past two years both an RET activity (Summer at WSU ? Engineering Experiences for Teachers ? SWEET) and a GK-12 activity (Culturally Relevant Engineering Applications in Mathematics ? CREAM) have been underway at Washington State University. The GK-12 program places STEM graduate students into classrooms to provide a real world application for the mathematics that the students are studying. The RET program brings teachers to the WSU campus during six weeks of the summer to work on research projects in engineering in order to gain a familiarity with engineering. Both programs seek to increase their impact in underrepresented groups by focusing participation on selected high schools in the state. Our biggest impact has been on the high schools in the Sunnyside/Mabton area. In both of these schools the percentage of Hispanic students is much higher than the state average. To date eight of the mathematics/science teachers have participated in one or both of the programs; four graduate students have participated as GK-12 fellows at Sunnyside High School. The impact of the interactions on the effectiveness of the two programs will be highlighted.