Home » ITEST Projects

IMMEX Fayette Consortium: Community Integrated Problem Solving

Submitted by gdrake on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 11:48
Last updated by Dorothea Wheeler on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 10:06
Share this
Forty 7th–12th grade students and 86 teachers in Lexington, Kentucky are working on IMMEX problem solving teams; they frame problems from a descriptive scenario, distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, plan a search strategy, gather information, and reach a decision that demonstrates understanding.
Project Information
Cohort: 
1 (2003-2006)
Category: 
Comprehensive
Principal Investigator: 
Greg Drake
Co-Principal Investigator(s): 
Lucinda Sanders
Sponsor: 
Fayette County Public Schools
Primary Focus: 
Computer Science - Programming and Other
Organization Location City: 
Lexington
Organization Location Region/State: 
East South Central
Kentucky (KY)
Where project work happens: 
East South Central
Kentucky (KY)
Other Area(s) of Focus: 
Computer Science - Programming and Other
Participant type: 
Middle School Teachers
High School Teachers
Middle School Students
High School Students
Target Area: 
Urban
Award Number: 
03-23036
Overview Section

The IMMEX Fayette Consortium is a comprehensive project for urban students and teachers that provides students in grades 7–12 with a solid foundation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is a community-integrated model in which teams of teachers, students, business partners, and higher education faculty construct interactive, problem-solving simulations integrating standards-based curricular content and technology issues commonly encountered in STEM careers in technology institutes for teachers and students. The institutes occur during the summer and during the school year, and they are followed by integration of technology and IMMEX (Interactive Multi Media Exercises) problem-solving during the school year.

Activities Section

PROJECT ACTIVITIES
During year one, the Fayette County IMMEX project, in partnership with UCLA, developed eight teams representing three high schools and six middle schools, which include teachers, students, and community partners. Teams attended a two-week summer training to learn how to construct eight IMMEX educational problem scenarios which challenge students to investigate a problem and also provide them with the resources to develop, test, and refine hypotheses to arrive at complex solutions. These problem sets will be available to users across the country through the IMMEX website: www.immex.ucla.edu. Two additional middle schools joined the project during the second year, for a total of ten participating schools. The schools continue to develop more problem sets, and are ahead of schedule in working toward the goal of completing 42 by September 2006.

Plans are underway to incorporate IMMEX into the school district’s annual Technology Fair and a district sponsored regional conference called the Technology Enhanced Classrooms (TEC) Conference.

Presentations on the project have been given at the National Education Computing Conference, the National School Boards Association T+L2 Conference, the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference, and the Kentucky Association of Technology Coordinators.
Two of the IMMEX Liaison teachers have received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Project Links
Project website: 
http://teach.fcps.net/immex/
Project Photos: 
http://itestlrc.edc.org/image_gallery?field_project_name_nid=106