Impact of Infusing Information Technology Rich Engineering and Science Curriculum at the Elementary and Middle School Level

This paper documents the development, implementation efforts, and results of SUNRISE (Schools, University ‘N’ (and) Resources In the Sciences and Engineering-A National Science Foundation (NSF)/George Mason University (GMU) GK-12 Fellows Project), a unique graduate Fellowship program at GMU that targets graduate students working in the grade 4-6 school environment. SUNRISE is a new GK-12 project aimed at partnering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduate students (Fellows) with school teachers from three different school divisions in Northern Virginia. The objective of this project is to build a unique model of collaboration among elementary and middle schools, school division administration, and GMU to foster systemic efforts in implementing Information Technology (IT) rich STEM content-knowledge into grades 4-6 education by graduate Fellows, with the potential to enhance the delivery of science instruction and provide long term professional development for teachers. This is achieved by constructing a framework that provides training, exchange of information, and integration of scientific research from diverse disciplines with teaching to make science exciting for students. Sponsored by NSF's GK-12 program, the GMU implementation serves as an exemplary model for the emerging trends in STEM education at the elementary school level. This paper presents evidences of increased student learning of fundamental science when the classroom topics are enriched with and related to IT rich real world examples.