B4. Project Organization

B4.2 The Partners

We describe the partners for this project, giving a brief history of how the relationships
developed.

B4.2.1 The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.., is a non-profit 501(c)(3) education and research corporation dedicated to the reform and improvement of mathematics and science education by the incorporation of appropriate computational and communication technologies. Our name recalls the role of the hammer in the shodering process of making and applying gold leaf: we work to extend valuable educational resources and opportunities as far as possible. We place a special emphasis on enabling authentic science and mathematics explorations at all educational levels, developing numerical models and simulations integrated with the curriculum, professional development, and network access to support their use in learner-centered environments. The foundation was started in 1994 as a way of extending the work of the Carolinas Summer Institute in Computational Science, an NSF-funded UFE project that introduced computational science and modeling to teams of faculty from 16 PUI's and HBCU's in North and South Carolina. The success achieved by those first workshops and the subsequent support of the Shodor Foundation can be measured, in part, by the Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Science Award program of the U.S. Department of Energy, which ran from 1994-1996: more than 40% of all awards given to recognize outstanding curricular materials development supporting the use of numerical models and methods at the
undergraduate level were won by staff or graduates of our workshops.

In 1996, the Shodor Foundation was recognized by the NSF Division of Undergraduate education as a Foundation Partner for our efforts and dedication to the revitalization of undergraduate education

B4.2.2 The Carolinas Consortium for Computational Science

While the staff of the original Carolinas Summer Institute formed the Shodor Foundation, the "graduates" voted in January 1994 to continue to seek ways to work together to further their own professional development while carrying the lessons learned back to their individual campuses. As a result, upon formal incorporation of the Shodor Foundation in May 1994, the Carolinas Consortium for Computational Science was founded as an informal alumni association of the "Computational Boot Camp" they had all survived. With administrative coordination by Shodor, Consortium members have helped each other with lesson plans, model ideas, ILI proposals, and by giving colloquia on each others' campuses. Member institutions include: North Carolina Central University, Elizabeth City State University, Shaw University, Appalachian State University, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington, Coastal Carolina University, North Carolina A&T University, Johnson C2. Smith University, Winthrop College, Furman University, Wingate College, and Wake Technical College. NSF funding of SCSI will be leveraged by seeking matching support from other sources. For example, with the current proposal, NCCU has agreed to take the lead as a pilot school, seeking to implement a modeling-based campus wide reform in science and mathematics based upon lessons learned by NCCU faculty participating in the SCSI enhancement activities.

B4.2.3 The Associated Colleges of the South

Incorporated in August of 1991, the Associated Colleges of the South has a mission to make the case for liberal arts education and to strengthen academic programs of the member institutions. The consortium articulates to many publics the nature of liberal learning and the vital role it plays. The organization points to the impact made by liberal arts on individuals and on the society as a whole, with ACS colleges and universities being viewed as exemplars of the highest quality liberal arts institutions. ACS is a mechanism through which member colleges and universities can create and build programs in a way which would not be possible on an individual basis. Their ideas and resources are shared, thereby raising the efficiency of operations and the effectiveness of programs. The beneficiary is the student. Joint summer and academic year programs overseas, rotating faculty, seminars and projects of faculty enrichment, staff development activities, and cooperative ventures of student research and training will all redound to the benefit of students on ACS campuses. Member institutions are: Birmingham-Southern College, Centenary College, Centre College, Furman University, Hendrix College, Millsaps College, Morehouse College, Rhodes College, Rollins College, Southwestern University, Trinity University, University of Richmond, and the University of the South. Since 1994, ACS has enlisted the help of the Shodor Foundation to define its faculty enhancement needs and to formulate effective plans to meet those needs. A proposal was prepared with Shodor's assistance to the Mellon Fund, which awarded a $1.15M grant to ACS to support the consortium efforts to incorporate technology in the curriculum and as a means of building closer connections among the members of the consortium. While ultimately the ACS model is to have member faculty run workshops for other faculty, it was clear that outside help was needed to introduce modeling and computational science. In June 1997, Shodor staff taught a pilot workshop that served as a test of a one-week introductory workshop design. Shodor and ACS are committed to finding new ways to extend the lessons learned to other faculty. The ACS will be a key partner and beneficiary of the Shodor Computational Science Institute project. NSF funding of the SCSI will be significantly leveraged as ACS faculty trained by Shodor will then be able to offer workshops funded by the Mellon Fund for other consortium faculty.