Welcome to Oregon State University's GK-12 Web site.

   NOTE: We are doing a major overhaul of our Web site. Please check back often to see our progress.

  The goal of our GK-12 project is to facilitate the development of
  active science learning in Oregon schools.

Fourteen Graduate Student Fellows are placed in one of eleven schools in three school districts
(a large city setting, a University town setting, and a dispersed rural district).

Science education outreach projects at OSU currently involve these districts.

Our multidisciplinary approach includes five graduate programs (Molecular and Cellular Biology, Mathematics, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Bioresource Engineering). Liaisons from each program are active in science outreach.

Five activity themes include 1) inquiry-based learning, 2) communication of content, 3) use of appropriate learning styles, 4) use of technology, and 5) use of the research paradigm.

Fellows will receive formal training in the summer and then spend 10 months in schools as "adopted scientists" in grades K-5 or "teaching assistants" in grades 6-12, and participate in extended outreach activities.

The benefits to the schools will be the participation of motivated, knowledgeable, and trained Fellows in the development and delivery of science education. The project will improve the connection between higher education and the public schools, establish a "pipeline" to schools with populations underrepresented in the University, and develop a cadre of experienced Fellows with a lifelong commitment to outreach.