hree more high schools from Tennessee have been selected by DOE to participate in an ongoing supercomputing program.
The program, "Adventures in Supercomputing" (AiS), is designed to cultivate the interest of women, minority, and disadvantaged high school students in the subjects of science, mathematics, and computing. DOE funds the program, which is implemented at host sites, including ORNL, Ames Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Colorado State University, and the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
The AiS selection board in Tennessee picked Humboldt High School, Loretto High School, and Maplewood Comprehensive High School to join the 12 Tennessee schools already participating in the program.
Participating schools from the East Tennessee area include: Clinton High School, Horace Maynard High School, and Wartburg Central High School.
More than 70 schools from the five respective host states will be active in the program during the 1994-95 school year.
Requirements must be met before a school is eligible to apply. The application must be from a public school located within one of the five host states. The school must include at least some of the grades 9 through 12. A team of at least two teachers, including one science teacher, must participate. To involve students earlier, only middle schools that feed into already-participating high schools will be targeted next year.
The program provides each school with curriculum materials, high-speed network capabilities, supercomputing resources, continuing technical support, and computing equipment. Each school has access to a sophisticated computer network.
Adventures in Supercomputing Video Clip (QuickTime, 30 seconds, 10 MB)
The program recommends that teachers establish a new course in computational science and supercomputing in the school or that they integrate the AiS curriculum material into existing science and mathematics classes, making the subjects more exciting for students.
"The program is very refreshing. It gives the teachers a way to get out of the same 'ole, same ole teaching routine,' Barbara Summers, AiS coordinator for ORNL, says.
The faculty team from each Tennessee school takes part in an intensive Summer Institute, scheduled for June 12-24, 1994, at ORNL. At the Institute, teachers will prepare to guide students in programming solutions to scientific problems. The Institute provides teachers with instructional materials for presenting introductory concepts in high-performance computing, scientific visualization software, and examples of the use of computational tools in modeling scientific problems. Teachers also develop a course outline and a course time line to help implement the AiS program at their schools.
During the school year, on-line communications among teachers, students, scientists, and college faculty help prevent the teachers from becoming isolated after they return to school. Newsletters, bulletin boards, and electronic mail facilitate this communication. Technical support personnel are available to troubleshoot hardware, software, and networking problems.--Amy L. Jones
