Over the past two years, the P–16 Center has partnered with Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC) in the development of BCSC’s three Signature Academy campuses, including their New Tech campus, which opened fall 2008 and provide project-based learning for students K–12.

Indiana University Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (IU-STEM) is expanding this partnership to include all the counties in the Columbus Area Career Connection (C4). C4 provides career and technical education to high school students in Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, and Jackson counties and prepares them for the careers emerging in Southeastern Indiana in advanced manufacturing.

An area of emphasis for IU-STEM is on student readiness for and success in algebra. The new state requirement that students pass the end-of-course exam for Algebra I has motivated school corporations to examine and revise their mathematics instructional programs to support greater student success in algebra. For this region, Professor in Mathematics Education Catherine Brown, former director of the P-16 Center, conducts professional development workshops on how to develop projects that relate to advanced manufacturing for mathematics classes. Designed for educators in New Tech schools, these workshops are open to mathematics educators in the EcO 15 region interested in project-based learning.

Some of IU-STEM's recent activities include:

• Coordinating the creation of a Web library where math teachers involved in New Technology High Schools contribute project- or problem-based ideas and activities.
• Hosting a seminar, which 40 math teachers attended, at the November 2008 CELL conference to discuss problem- and project-based learning in mathematics instruction. A similar seminar will also be held in Indianapolis.
• Coordinating a physics seminar, which focused on pedagogy related to mechanical literacy, that was offered to students in the 2008 fall semester.