Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 9, 2009 — Williams College has announced its 2009 local Bicentennial Olmsted Awards for faculty development to McCann Technical School, Mt. Greylock Regional School, and the Williamstown Elementary School. The $5,000 awards will fund professional and curricular development projects.
“Integrating Nanotechnology into High School Science Courses” is the winning project at McCann. Led by Kristin Steiner the grant will support the attendance of a McCann science faculty member at the 2009 Nanotechnology Summer Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “The knowledge obtained from the 2009 Nanotechnology Summer Institute will allow science teachers at McCann to apply an important aspect of science and industry to the various career and technical programs within the high school,” Steiner said.
The award to Mt. Greylock will support two team projects. One, proposed by the ninth-grade teachers, will rearrange the daily schedule to enable students in that grade to have experiences that build collaboration and help with the transition to high school. The other, designed by biology teachers, will create in-class research projects designed to help students develop independent research skills.
At the Williamstown Elementary School, the funded projects are Stephen Johnson’s “Crisis Team Training” and Tom Welch’s “Taking Educational Technology to a New Level.”
“Crisis Team Training” is a continuation of the faculty crisis training from 2008/09. This year the school is planning to develop a “crisis protocol,” to focus on four key components of handling a crisis: understanding, grieving, commemorating, and going on.
The second project will involve attendance of a team of teachers at the 30th annual National Educational Computing Conference in Washington, D.C. and who will serve on the school’s Technology Committee for 2009/10. “Our students, our tools, and our technology infrastructure are ready to move forward,” says Welch. “With quality professional development and time, our teachers can also be ready.”
An endowment from the estates of George Olmsted, Jr. ’24 and his wife, Frances, fund the local Olmsted Awards. The awards were established during the 1993 Williams Bicentennial Celebration as an extension of the national Olmsted Prizes, which are awarded each year to great secondary school teachers from across the country, nominated by the Williams senior class. Olmsted, a lifelong proponent of superior teaching, was the president and chairman of the board of the S.D. Warren (Paper) Company.
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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
To visit the college on the Internet:www.williams.edu
news: Iliyana
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Published June 9, 2009
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