INDUSTRY

CHAMPAIGN, IL — A team of teachers from Bismarck-Henning Community Unit School District 1 is participating in a program called REVITALISE (Rural Educators using Visualization to Inspire Teacher Advancement and Learning to Improve Science and Mathematics Education). REVITALISE, led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Illinois and East Carolina University (ECU) in North Carolina and funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, aims to bring scientific visualization and computational modeling into rural classrooms in order to stimulate learning, reduce the isolation of rural teachers and students, and improve math and science education. On May 19, representatives from the REVITALISE project (including Scott Lathrop, NCSA's associate director for education, outreach and training) met at the Bismarck-Henning Junior High School with the Bismarck-Henning team as well as school board members, administrators, community members, and news media to answer questions regarding the program. To date, the Bismarck-Henning team has attended two workshops at NCSA and will attend a two-week institute at NCSA in June. The Bismarck-Henning team consists of: Cheryl Brumett (district technology coordinator) Rusty Campbell (mathematics/lift science) Maribeth Holland (physical/life science) Stacey Schendel (special education) The Bismarck-Henning team has chosen to complete a project on water quality. They will work with various community organizations and businesses to collect data on local wells, community water systems, field runoff, creeks and Lake Vermilion. Students in the high school and junior high science classes will be involved in the project by taking water samples and compiling data. The REVITALISE program covers all costs for participants, as well as paying for substitute teachers any day a team member is away from school; gives the team and school district software; and makes available to the teams unlimited support from scientists and computer specialists. For more information on REVITALISE, see http://www.eot.org/revitalise/.