Dr. Stephanie M. G. Wright
President and CEO
Delaware AeroSpace Education Foundation (DASEF)
5 Essex Drive
Bear, DE 19701
Tel: 302-454-2432
Email: swright@udel.edu

Website: www.dasef.org

Dr. F. M. Ross Armbrecht, Jr.
Executive Director
Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education
100 W. 10th Street, Suite 1115
Wilmington, DE 19801
Tel: 302-397-0034
Fax: 302-397-0036
Email: rossarmbrecht@dca.net

Website: www.dfsme.net

The Delaware AeroSpace Education Foundation exists to enlighten and educate the people of the Delaware Valley in the areas of math, science, technology and aerospace through the use of the our academies, presentations, symposiums, professional development, events and activities and our new Innovation, Technology, Exploration Center (ITEC).

The Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education (DFSME) connects businesses, community groups, and institutions of higher education with systemic, standards-based reform of science and mathematics education in Delaware public schools and classrooms. DFSME supports equitable access to high quality instruction and curricula aligned with the Delaware standards so that student performance in these disciplines is continuously improved.

2006 Highlights

• DASEF: Opened Environmental Outpost, Phase I of Innovation Technology Exploration Center - April 22, 2006. Outpost open for inservice/workshops, Saturday Programs and standards-based field trips for all schools and agencies. Phase II in progress.
• DASEF: Statewide standards-based Rockets for Schools Program challenges and final program on May 6, 2006
• DASEF ran seven sessions of the 2006 Delaware Aerospace Academy for over 345 cadets -Coordinated 2006 Launching a Dream -Continued partnerships with NASA Headquarters, Goddard Space Flight Center, Kennedy Space Center, Air Force Association, Civil Air Patrol, business, military, and education.
• Represented state—appointed by Governor and Lt. Governor—at all quarterly meetings of the Aerospace States Association - state based non profit that focuses on education and space/aviation policy at the national level. Serve as National Education Chair and on Executive Committee.
• DASEF ran standards based workshops/inservice for Delaware educators -Part of the DuPont Network to reach educators Present at various DuPont sponsored events.
• DASEF sponsored and coordinated Educational Family Day on Sept. 30m 2006
• DASEF is working with corporate and university to partner on new programs.
• DASEF ran NASA Resource Center for State.
• DASEF: K-12 Outreach Coordinator and on Advisory for Delaware NASA Space Grant.
• DASEF is an Active member of State Science Advisory and Delaware Technology Education Association.
• DASEF sent out 3 statewide newsletters to all educators with educational and program opportuntities.
• DFSME is assisting the DuPont Company in finding partners to help supply the kit component of the Delaware Science Coalition’s upgraded genetics unit for seventh grade. The Our Genes, Our Selves kit and the inquiry-based unit, underwritten by DuPont, engages Delaware students in more rigorous genetics content to better prepare them for higher level genetics in high school and ultimately for the workforce. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals responded generously to the need for kit purchase and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute contributed additional funding for teacher training. The program will impact 225 teachers and 12,000 students in Delaware each year.
• Hodgson Vocational and Technical High School teachers Justin Benz and Stanley Studzinski have designed a program to simulate real-world product development in order to better prepare students for employment . A DFSME grant provides funds to further pilot and institutionalize the program in which
  assigned projects give student teams the opportunity to use their vocational training in an authentic context while extending their knowledge of math and science. Students in the millwright and environmental technology programs work together to design and construct a system or device that will resolve a problem in agricultural engineering. While immersed in hands-on, inquiry-based experimentation, students also use skills learned in math, science, and vocational classes. The projects promote use of the scientific process, creativity, and higher-order thinking skills to yield solutions to actual problems.
• New Castle County Vocational and Technical High School teacher Amy Quillen is receiving a DFSME grant to provide teacher training that will supply the content knowledge necessary to make and understand connections between the “big ideas” in Astronomy and Physics and link to the respective state standards. Training will include new pedagogical strategies and will lead teachers in the development of activities to engage all students and help them to learn. In addition to providing teacher training, the grant will be used to purchase 20 kits developed by Cambridge Physics Outlet. The kits, Light and Optics and Sound and Waves, provide engaging, hands-on experiments and the necessary sturdy equipment to carry them out.
• Converging Curriculum for Struggling Problem Solvers is a multidistrict program designed to break the cycle of failure in mathematics so often experienced by special education, Title 1, and other at-risk student populations. In partnership with MSERC, DFSME leveraged a modest contribution to obtain funding through a Math Partnership Program Grant. Targeting middle-school mathematics and special education teachers, the grant supports improving teachers’content knowledge, enabling them to use conceptual models that work with the existing curriculum to provide proactive intervention for atrisk problem solvers. The grant provides access to procedural and conceptual coaching to enhance existing curricula. The enhanced content and pedagogical knowledge acquired by teachers will spill into the education of all students, not just those at risk in mathematics.
• DFSME is supporting the Middle School Science Curriculum Formative Assessment Development project, reaching 50 teachers and all Delaware middle school students (approximately 30,000 children) will develop and make available quality assessment tools for appropriate times in each science unit. The assessments assist teachers to make students aware of the goals of each unit, enable students to self evaluate their achievement, and allow teachers to adjust instruction to meet student needs.
• DFSME is supporting the High School Science Summative Assessment Development, an ongoing program designed to develop summative assessment tools for use with high school science units. High school lead teachers identify the content and skills that constitute understanding of each science unit’s “big ideas.” The subsequently developed assessment tools allow students and teachers to measure success against each unit’s goals. Student responses also provide teachers the information needed to make instructional inferences, to adjust and re-teach concepts and skills, and to revise plans for the next time a unit is taught. Assessment tools that are generated will be available on the website, www.scienceassessment.org, for all teachers to use. The pilot involves 25 teachers and about 4000 students. When complete, 250 of Delaware’s teachers and 25,000 students will benefit yearly.
• In its second year, a DFSME-funded Delaware Science Coalition project is designed to bring 11th grade science teaching methodology and curriculum into line with the lower grades by developing, piloting, and implementing inquiry-based science units. Including ecology, physics, and astronomy, the units comprise the next step of the conceptual teaching method in which the principles learned at each level become the foundation for the next level. The program impacts approximately 75 teachers and 11,000 students, and continues the integrated spiraling curriculum for science education in Delaware.