College lands NASA cash
Centenary will use $1 million grant for math and science programs, technology upgrades.
HACKETTSTOWN | Centenary College has received a $1 million grant from NASA to expand its math and science education programs, college officials announced Monday.
The award is the largest federal grant in the college’s history, Provost and Chief Operating Officer Bryon Grigsby said.
Half of the grant money will go toward technology upgrades made to start Centenary’s online master’s of education program last fall. The other $500,000 will go toward enlisting an award-winning professor from Indiana University to train teachers in 10 to 15 local school districts in using video game technology to improve student test scores.
“With the help of NASA, we at Centenary can further enhance our ability to offer true learning for a 21stt century world,” college President Kenneth Hoyt said.
Centenary started an online master’s of education program last fall to give teachers too busy to attend traditional master’s classes a chance to pursue the degree, Grigsby said. About 50 teachers are enrolled in the program.
The teacher training from the Indiana University professor will begin this summer. Sasha Barab, a John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation Award-winner, will work with teachers on integrating education video games into their curriculum to increase interest in math and science.
Barab created a game called Quest Atlantis, which has a similar premise to online role-playing games, but its characters have to accomplish math and science tasks. The game is made for 9- to 12-year-olds.
“We are absolutely delighted to partner with such a dynamic, progressive individual,” Grigsby said.
Barab’s program will run throughout the 2007-08 school year. Three school districts have already confirmed their interest in the program including Hackettstown.
“It certainly appears to me to be a very exciting way to engage our middle school students in different ways to think of math and science in a more exciting fashion,” Hackettstown Superintendent Robert Gratz said.
