Dr. Steven Lay and Dr. Johnny Evans recently attended a meeting in Nashville hosted by the board of directors of Edvantia, a funding agency, related to the grant Lee University received last year in the math and physics education program.  At the meeting, Edvantia showcased five of their grant programs across the state of Tennessee, including Lee University’s, and introduced the current grant recipients. Dr. Evans commented, “It was a chance for them to show us off, which is never a bad thing.”

Posted by Amber Mear

The Lee University Beach Building has stood since 1966 as a testament to furthering knowledge and education. Recently, however, construction has begun on the new science building. Construction began in June of 2007, and the project will be completely finished by the fall of 2010. Work is currently being done on the 15th Street wing, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. The center piece of the building is also under construction. Next summer, the second phase of the building project will begin. This involves tearing down the current Beach Building to make room for another wing. There is no word yet about what the new science building will be named.

Cole Strong, general liaison to the project, commented that construction was progressing according to schedule. The new science building is expected to to provide 73,000 square feet for classes, labs, offices, a lecture hall and student lounge. This is more than triple the size of the current science building, which boasts 22,000 square feet.

Posted by Amber Mear

Lee University has been awarded a $750,000 from the Tennessee Department of Education to provide training for seven school systems in the teaching of mathematics at the middle-school level. The three-year grant was announced in Nashville by Governor Phil Bredesen and Education Commissioner Lana Seviers.

Three other universities – UT-Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State, and East Tennessee State – also received “Mathematics and Science Partnership Grants as part of the state’s campaign to deliver up-to-date, research-based training in teaching strategies. School systems which will partner with Lee University in the program are Cleveland City, Bradley County, McMinn County, Meigs County, Monroe County, Polk County, and Sweetwater City Schools.

Lee University’s grant is based on the research of Dr. Steven Lay, Professor of Mathematics at Lee and the director of the newly funded program. Lay will lead the Lee math faculty in implementing a curriculum in algebra education which he developed and has piloted in local schools.

As a full-time teacher at Lee, Lay developed the INAT (Improving Numeracy and Algebraic Thinking) project by rewriting his college algebra math curriculum and gearing it towards eighth graders. With such a successful remedial math program at Lee, Lay used the program to help improve math scores for local middle school students. In order to further the effects of Lay’s highly effective teaching technique, Lee will hold a two-week summer institute for teachers in the participating local school districts called “Prelude to Algebra” and will offer follow-up training during the school year.

Lay’s remedial math curriculum has been used with outstanding success at Lee University in its foundational Elementary Algebra class. The “Prelude” approach addresses the mistakes students make in algebra and uses basic arithmetic to influence algebraic thinking.

“We hope to improve the effectiveness of the teaching of pre-algebra and thereby increase the students’ success in learning algebra,” says Lay.The participating teachers will each receive a stipend of $1,000 for attending the institute and 3 hours of graduate credit. Institute staff will continue to meet periodically with the teachers for follow-up training and professional development as they return to their classrooms and implement what they have learned at the summer institutes. Lee University will also provide the teachers with supplementary materials to use in their classrooms.”

Not only will this project benefit pre-algebra teachers and their students, but this grant builds tremendous credibility for Lee’s Department of Natural Science and Mathematics. This award will enhance the university’s ability to attract private and government support for future math and science projects and partnerships with the K-12 education community,” said Vanessa Hammond, Lee University Director of Grants who helped Lay on the development of the INAT grant proposal.

A further aspect of the program will include external researchers, Edvantia, a non-profit educational research and development organization based in West Virginia. A research team from Edvantia will be conducting the external research component during the project that will evaluate the impact of the INAT project on mathematics instruction and the effectiveness of the “Prelude” approach in increasing student achievement in algebra. Edvantia also will provide some assistance to Dr. Lay in conducting the professional development for teachers.

Lay is aided by Dr. Johnny Evans, Assistant Professor of Physics and Chemistry. Evans serves as the Assistant Project Director for the INAT Project where he manages the project’s financial and logistical details.

Lay joined the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Lee University in the fall of 1998. An experienced college instructor, Lay came to Lee from the mission field of Japan, where he had been ministering since 1990. Prior to his mission work, Lay was a professor for nineteen years at Aurora University in Illinois, where he received the Excellence in Teaching Award in 1985. His M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics were achieved at the University of California at Los Angeles, and his B.A., also in mathematics, was earned at Aurora where he returned to teach in 1971.

Lay’s areas of specialty are analysis and geometry. He teaches math classes at all levels from developmental to upper division courses for majors. He has written four books, including three math texts: Principles of Algebra, Convex Sets and their Applications, and Analysis with an Introduction to Proof. The 4th edition of his analysis book became available in the spring of 2005. His newest book, Japanese: Language and Culture, is used as a text in a one-semester introduction to Japanese course that he teaches each spring.Photo: (L-R) Dr. Johnny Evans, Vanessa Hammond, and Dr. Steven Lay helped Lee University acquire a $750,000 math grant from Tenn. Department of Education.

Submitted by the Office of Public InformationOriginal article by By Jordan Lee

Lee University recently received a $393,000 grant which will be distributed over the next two years from the Tennessee Department of Education Math Science Partnership Division as an extension of Lee’s current Improving Numeracy and Algebraic Thinking (INAT) grant directed by Dr. Steven Lay. This new component, directed by Associate Professor of physics and chemistry Dr. Johnny Evans, will be called Improving Pre-Physics and Math (IPPM).

The grant will fund professional development opportunities for twenty 9th grade science teachers in 2008 and 2009 during two two-week summer institutes on Lee’s campus. The focus of the institute will be to improve the skills of physical science and pre-physics teachers by teaching them how to develop more effective demonstrations and hands-on activities.

“Our plan is to teach the participants the components of a good demonstration and model effective teaching strategies while we are teaching a physics content review,” said Evans. “By helping teachers develop new labs or demonstrations they will be able to communicate complex concepts more effectively to their students.”

This institute is the fulfillment of seven years of research by Evans in developing effective teaching tools for physics and chemistry. Evans feels that a major problem with current teaching strategies is that teachers do not have large budgets to purchase expensive equipment and demonstration kits. Evans has also spent a great deal of his research exploring teaching methods for the classroom and the grant provides the opportunity for teachers to learn these techniques.

“We hope that teachers will return to the classroom with the skills and equipment necessary for improving their use of hands-on activities and demonstrations in science class, particularly pre-physics,” said Evans. “In addition, we hope that the institute is refreshing and renews their passion to impact the lives of their students. Science education is my passion and this grant allows me to share that passion with forty excellent teachers in Southeast Tennessee.”

A significant portion of the funds will also provide the participants with the equipment and tools necessary for teaching pre-physics more effectively. In addition, participants will receive a stipend and three hours of graduate credit.

The faculty involved with the IPPM grant are Evans as project director and Dr. Paul DeLaLuz as assistant project director.

Lee hosted the first summer institute funded by the INAT grant in 2007 which welcomed twenty teachers to Lee’s campus for an introduction to a new teaching method for algebra developed by Lee Professor of mathematics Dr. Steven Lay. Funds awarded for Lay’s project combined with Evans’ extension will total $1.1 million by the end of the three-year grant period. Additionally, the INAT and IPPM summer institutes will coincide for the next two years.

Johnny Evans joined the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics faculty in January of 2000. A 1993 graduate of Georgia College, now Georgia College and State University, Evans continued his education at the University of Florida, earning a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. 
 From 1998-2000, he was a post-doctoral associate at the University of Florida, developing instrumentation first for Oak Ridge National Laboratories and then for Savannah River Laboratories. He now serves as associate professor of Chemistry and Physics teaching physics, general chemistry, and upper division chemistry courses.

Submitted by the Office of Public Information