Creation of the Writers House and Science Lab

During initial partnership meetings between IU and GCSC, the Gary administrators requested that IU help the two academies transform existing school space into a science laboratory in McCullough Academy and a literacy-focused facility in Watson Academy. On November 8, 2007, IU and GCSC celebrated the opening of the new facilities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that involved members from IU, GCSC, and the Gary community as well as many student participants.

According to McCullough principal Pearl Prince, the partnership provided the support that the school needed desperately to get the science lab going, start teaching hands-on science, and begin addressing the students’ fear of science. Encouraged by the positive impact of the first science laboratory for upper-grades McCullough students, the school opened a second laboratory for lower grades not long afterward.

A few blocks away at Watson Academy, the Writers House project converted an under-utilized classroom to a vibrant space containing all the tools for students to draft, revise, edit, illustrate and publish written works. Soon after the opening of the Writers House, Watson students produced their own books – text and binding – under the expert direction of a professional East Coast bookbinder.

Professional Development

Relationships are essential to a strong school-university partnership. Read how a partnership forms and functions in our partnership profile "Pathmakers: a school-university partnership."

Equipped with their new learning spaces, the two academies requested assistance with incorporating them into their curricula. Associate Professor Gayle Buck and her graduate students began working with the teachers to develop inquiry-based lesson plans and acquiring additional content knowledge. Recently Buck and her School of Education colleague Dr. Dionne Cross, in collaboration with the McCullough principal and teachers, developed a long-range plan for scaling up the science education efforts currently underway at the school. Over the next two years, professional development activities will be ramped up into a more unified, sustainable initiative that incorporates inquiry-based teaching and learning of mathematics in addition to science.

Buck also received a grant from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to initiate a district-wide professional development program, called Power Up for Science, which focuses on enhancing science instruction.

Assistant Professor Gerald Campano and graduate student Lenny Sanchez began to work in the Watson Academy classrooms with students and teachers on a wide range of literacy activities. In regular sessions with teachers throughout the school year, the faculty team cultivates teacher expertise in developing a wide range of culturally relevant, engaging literacy-related projects – from creating and presenting poems, to writing informational texts about community issues, to producing a school newsletter. Like Buck, Campano also received a Pathways Initiative – Collaborative Project grant from the School of Education to continue his long-term collaboration with the teachers and administrators at the academy.

Campus Connections

The importance of pursuing a postsecondary education, even as early as elementary school, is reinforced through the partnership. As professors and students like Campano and Sanchez work with the students, they talk about college and bring artifacts from IU to share. These regular interactions are further strengthened by campus visits and IU summer camp scholarships, where students and their families experience college life. The P-16 Center recently hosted the Gary DADS Club, a group of 4^th – 6^th graders and a few dads, for a weekend college visit, and this group participated in a literacy-related scavenger hunt around campus, attended an IU exhibition basketball game, and camped out at an area retreat center.