Undergraduate faculty and K-12 teachers interested in learning about computational science and how to integrate it into the classroom are invited to participate in the SC2003 Education Program, which is to be held from November 15-18 in Phoenix.

The training program, held in conjunction with SC2003, the annual conference on high performance computing, offers programs for teachers and higher education faculty to meet with scientists and engineers and to explore the application of advanced computing technologies in classroom activities.

Support for travel and housing expenses will be provided to accepted Education Program applicants, pending funding.

With the support of SC2003, teams of undergraduate faculty and K-12 teachers from around the country will work on the integration of modeling and visualization tools into their classroom activities. Computational scientists will work with these teams to help them identify appropriate tools to apply to their curriculum.

The educators will adapt existing modules, as well as develop new curriculum modules for their classroom activities, and publish their results and experiences on the Web for use by other educators. The educators will participate in a year-long program of workshops, mentoring and support to assist them as they apply these new techniques in their classes.

Both computer novices and experienced users will find topics to suit them at the conference. Workshops will vary from teaching popular software such as Stella, Excel, and Mathematica, to computational science tools for specific applications.

The organizers of this year’s educational sessions have a particular focus on undergraduate educators. They are seeking teams of two to six members consisting of either undergraduate faculty or a combination of faculty and middle and high school teachers.

Each year, thousands of scientific computing researchers meet at SC to discuss and share their latest work. And, each year, hundreds of undergraduate and middle and high school educators participate in the conference through the Education Program, and by attending the exhibits, plenary sessions, and special programs offered to all conference attendees.

The Education Program encourages the participation of underrepresented faculty and teachers, including faculty from two- and four-year colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, and minority-serving institutions.

Computational scientists, educators, and technologists will work with these teams to aid them in identifying appropriate tools to apply to their curriculum to support collaborative learning opportunities for their students.

SC2003 is the leading high performance computing and networking conference and is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society. The SC2003 Education Program is sponsored by these, by the National Science Foundation, and by many universities and research laboratories.

The Education Program runs from Nov. 15 through Nov. 18, although participants are encouraged to stay for the remainder of the week to participate in the full range of conference offerings.

Other activities at the conference will include a first-class technical program, student volunteer opportunities, and ‘Student Days,’ aimed at providing undergraduate and graduate students with information about careers in education, research, and industry.