Q: Gary, you and your colleagues are developing a reputation for innovative efforts to improve K-12 math and science education in North Carolina. What are some of the things that your team is doing?

A: Just last week, three colleagues at Duke's Center for Inquiry-Based Learning (CIBL) and I received a five-year, $5.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation for TASC (Teachers and Scientists Collaborating). The TASC Force, as we call it, seeks to narrow achievement gaps, improve end-of-grade science and mathematics scores, and improve the quality of science teaching in four North Carolina school districts. We aim to establish a cadre of scientists from Duke, the Research Triangle and across North Carolina. These scientists will provide ongoing teacher assistance in Alamance/Burlington, Iredell/Statesville, Harnett and Orange Counties.

Our goal is to reach 7,560 teachers and 352,800 students in kindergarten through eighth grade during the five-year period of the grant.

My colleagues - Dave Smith, Norm Budnitz and Tim MacAller - have a combined 40 years of experience teaching science in middle and high schools. We share a common vision to develop children's curiosity. Instead of forcing the absorption and memorization of facts, we want to teach the teachers to stimulate senses, engage attention, and be guides through the process of discovery.

The new grant follows others I've received for similar efforts to inspire love for math and science learning, all under a program I call "Engineering K-Phd." For more information about some of my other programs, visit my web site. Funded by various institutions, they all support various ways to bring Pratt and other students into the community to help inspire a love of learning and a love of science and math in young people.

Just last week, colleagues at five other universities and I received funds to create TeachEngineering.com, a digital library to be populated with searchable, standards-based K-12 curricula.

Math and science may sound boring and dry to many people, but they can be fun and exciting, and their principles underlie everything we are and do.

Gary Ybarra is associate professor of the practice and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering