Natonal Institute for Science Education
Joins University of Wisconsin-Madison


     More students will have more opportunity to learn useful
science, mathematics, engineering, and technology as a result of
research and development to be conducted by the newly-funded
National Institute for Science Education (NISE), based at the
Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
     The five-year $10 million institute, funded by the National
Science Foundation, will launch a new approach to the continuous
improvement of teaching of science, mathematics, engineering and
technology. Operated as a partnership among the UW-Madison, the
National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Center for
Improving Science Education, the Institute is co-directed by WCER
Director Andrew Porter and UW-Madison Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering and Chemistry Denice Denton.
     Porter says that, while the American educational system has
delivered an outstanding preparation for lifelong learning to
some students from the middle and upper classes, virtually all
students from low-income and minority groups have been
inadequately prepared in the science-related areas. The NISE will
work to ensure that all students receive the best possible
education. It will seek to improve science-related teaching from
kindergarten through graduate school, so that all students, upon
leaving the educational system, will be scientifically literate
and able to make informed decisions about the SMET-related
matters that they encounter in their daily lives. 
     Denice Denton says, "We expect that new communities of
scholarship and practice will be established, where scientists,
education researchers, and education practitioners will
collaborate to attack the enduring problems of science-related
education that have resisted solutions from more narrow
approaches."
     Denton will manage day-to-day activities and serve as the
primary point of communication between the NISE and NSF. Porter
will ensure that all NISE work is appropriately evaluated, will
maintain the highest standards of quality, and will oversee
NISE's dissemination strategies. The NISE management team will
consist of researchers, developers, a K-12 teacher and a
representative of business and industry.
     A 24-person National Advisory Board will guide NISE work,
and professional societies and research institutions will
collaborate.

     For more information, call the Wisconsin Center for Education
Research at 608-263-8814 or visit our Web site at
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu