9 projects funded by special program

Nine research and service projects will share $100,000 in funding as part of the Public School Partnership Program.

The program, a collaboration of the university and the Starkville and Oktibbeha County school districts, helps develop and implement educational activities that increase student achievement. The Office of Research administers the program.

Projects for 1997-98 include:

• William J. Sumrall and Diane Greene, curriculum and instruction, "The Relationship Between Reading Sources and Students' Achieving Levels in Science and Reading Education";

• Jay Kunz and Kittye Delle Robbins-Herring, foreign languages, "Going Global: Introducing High-tech Enhancement for Foreign Languages Learning at the Secondary School Level";

• Pete Melby, landscape architecture, Thomas Cathcart, agricultural and biological engineering, and Jonathan Pote, Water Resources Research Institute, "A Tall Grass Prairie Environmental Education Center Master Plan";

• Christopher Skinner, counselor education/educational psychology, "Using Group Contingencies and Peer-Monitoring to Increase Elementary Students' Prosocial Behaviors: Tootling Rather Than Tattling";

• Burnette Hamil, curriculum and instruction, Giselle Thibaudeau, biological sciences, and Taha Mzoughi, physics and astronomy, "Hands-on Scientific Research: Implementing GLOBE Project Protocols in Oktibbeha County Schools";

• Anita George, The Learning Center, "A Pilot Study to Determine the Effectiveness of a Professional Development Intervention Project: Lesson Planning Using the 4MAT System";

• David Smith, Filip To and Alex Thomasson, agricultural and biological engineering, "Improving Elementary Science Education with Java Station Based Teaching and Hands-on Experimentation";

• Mfanya Tryman, political science, "Mentoring At-risk Youth in the Quad County Alternative School";

• Mike Walters, Center for Educational Partnerships, "Facilitating Oktibbeha County School District to Become a Self-renewing Learning Organization."