Engineering for teachers of migrant students (ETMS)

One of the difficulties in teaching mathematics and science to migrant Hispanic students is that they do not see a connection between math and their daily lives. Therefore, to successfully teach migrants, teachers must make mathematics an engaging subject to their students' lives. Engineering for Teachers of Migrant Students (ETMS) is a project that promotes a holistic philosophy of teaching and learning mathematics and science with a vision of helping to create a scientifically literate community of youth Hispanic migrant learners and adult teacher-scholars. It provides classroom opportunities for teacher participants to engage in hands-on environmental engineering-based learning activities related to math and science. In the program, mathematics and science professional and preservice teachers are exposed to new and engaging hands-on problem solving activities to stimulate student interest and encourage their intellectual and scientific development. Activities help teachers develop new ways of creating productive, engaging and inquiry-based environments that promote migrant student interest in the life-long learning of math and science. Evaluation results indicated that for the 2001 teacher participants, 93% learned new concepts which could be taken back to their classrooms, 90% learned new instructional approaches, and 75% participated in hands-on activities that could be used in their classrooms.