INDIANA UNIVERSITY PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING Administration Building, Suite 136 355 N. Lansing Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-2896 317-274-7711 Fax: 317-274-5457

POPULAR TEACHER'S RESOURCE CENTER KITS PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESSES

INDIANAPOLIS - Businesses and corporations looking to invest in an educational project with proven success and a growing market demand should consider putting their money and expertise into the Teacher's Resource Center (TRC).

The center, a partnership between IUPUI's Community Learning Network and Raytheon, offers K-12 teachers in Marion and surrounding counties free, complete kits for hands-on classroom activities in math and science.

Raytheon, which provided a $64,500 grant to fund the program's first year at IUPUI, recently provided a $75,000 grant to cover kit delivery, salary, and other costs for the current school year.

CVS recently became the center's first kit sponsor, donating $1,000 to fund costs for delivering and restocking materials for a learning kit on poison control. CVS will also design the curriculum for use with the kit.

TRC is now recruiting other companies who are willing to sponsor kits.

"Our goal is to reach a total of 10,000 students this year," TRC Director Debra Robertson said. "However, we could reach at least 29,000, if we had additional sponsors."

TRC kits have become a hot commodity among area teachers.

About 75 to 85 percent of the center's current 53 kits are booked every month.

"I have trouble keeping up with the demand," Robertson said.

Changes made in the TRC program since its move to IUPUI last year - on-line ordering, free delivery and correlation to academic standards - resulted in an increase in the number of students served from 739 during the transition months to 6,965 from January to August 2001.

That astronomical eight-month jump of more than 800 percent, means thousands more Indianapolis area students are learning and retaining more math and science skills, the center director said. Research has shown that with hands-on experience, students learn the material in half the time and retain twice as much, according to Robertson.

Wendy Desboro, a fourth grade teacher at IPS 107, has used three kits so far this year, including one titled "Build It Festival," which teaches geometry, and "Oobleck," which develops scientific reasoning. All supplies, including student lesson sheets, needed for each assignment are included in each kit, she said.

"They are definitely a wonderful addition to the classroom," Desboro said. "Projects are all right there for you in the box."

That not only decreases outside-class preparation time, but also allows teachers to offer activities that they might not be able to afford otherwise, Desboro said. For example, the six sets of patterned blocks included in "Build It Festival" cost as much as $20 each.

Her use of the kits has increased classroom participation among students who normally are less interested, and increased knowledge retention among all students, Desboro said. Unfortunately some of her colleagues have tried to check out particular kits, only to find another teacher has already done so.

The free kits, which may be checked out for several weeks, are also designed to help teachers meet the state Department of Education's new standards for teaching science and math.

At the invitation of Raytheon, IUPUI became the host site for the program last year, agreeing to manage the center and upgrade services to provide on-line ordering and free delivery to teachers. Raytheon began TRC as a community outreach project in 1997, and maintained a program office in East Indianapolis until the move to IUPUI.

Kits are available on topics such as the effects of acid rain, bubbles, the behavior of bees, crime labs, the food chain, the planets and more. Most kits are based on the Great Explorations in Math and Science guides and the Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies from the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley.

Businesses interested in learning more about the program and sponsoring a kit, can log on to https://www.cln.iupui.edu/tres/index.html and call Robertson at (317) 278-0758.

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