Honeywell And Georgia Tech To Launch Innovative Software Education Program For Metro Atlanta's Middle And High School Teachers

Sponsored by Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company's corporate citizenship initiative, the STEM Teacher Leadership Program at Georgia Tech aims to create a professional network of teachers to serve as instructional leaders in computer science as well as to strengthen the computational aspects of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curricula to enhance students' STEM learning experience.

Key components of the two-year program include:

• Four weeks of intensive summer training in software engineering and computing with 25 selected teachers. Teachers will have access to Georgia Tech's state-of-the-art computing research and Honeywell engineers, who will serve as mentors and coaches.
• The Honeywell STEM Challenge, a software engineering competition open to students of teachers who participate in the STEM Teacher Leadership Program. Students will work in teams to solve real-world challenges using software coding and computation techniques.
• An annual STEM Teacher Leadership Program Symposium, where alumni and other teachers and leaders from Atlanta Metro can attend additional academic and networking activities at Georgia Tech.

"We're pleased to continue our relationship with Honeywell as part of our vision to be among the most highly respected, technology-focused learning institutions in the world," said Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Tech's Provost and Executive President for Academic Affairs, during the STEM Teacher Leadership Program announcement event on the university's campus. "Strong students start with strong foundations. Together with Honeywell's support, Georgia Techwill be able to continue to place strategic emphasis on teachers as they prepare the next generation of STEM leaders."

The program will be facilitated by The Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech. Participating schools include the Atlanta Public Schools and the Cobb, DeKalb, Fultonand Gwinnett County Schools.

"The complexities of today's connected world require young people to learn new computer science and software skills to solve tomorrow's problems," said Jamshed Patel, site leader for Honeywell's Atlanta Software Center. "By offering new teaching techniques in these subject areas to Metro Atlanta teachers, we hope to prepare students to join a workforce where success comes from the ability to logically think through a technical problem and find a way to solve it."

In addition to the STEM Teacher Leadership Program, Honeywell closely cooperates with Georgia Tech on job fairs, collaborative projects, student events, academic opportunities and internships.

Honeywell Hometown Solutions (HHS) supports global STEM education through multiple programs. For example, since 2004, HHS has sent nearly 2,800 middle school teachers to the Honeywell Educators at Space Academy at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC), including 50 from Georgia, and since 2010, has sponsored more than 2,000 high school students at the USSRC, including 20 from Georgia. Since 2004, HHS has presented its Newtonian physics program FMA Live! to 488,000 middle schools across North America, including 15,475 students from 43 schools in 8 cities in Georgia. In 2007, Georgia Tech hosted the Honeywell Initiative for Science & Engineering, a Nobel laureate STEM program presented at universities around the world.

For more information about the program and how teachers can apply and participate, email casey.bethel@ceismc.gatech.edu.