Pitt Receives Grant of $2 Million From the National Science Foundation

PITTSBURGH-The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded University of Pittsburgh School of Education Professor Margaret Smith a grant of $2,101,270 to support Pitt's Cases of Reasoning and Proving in Secondary Mathematics (CORP) project. The award is a continuing grant that has been approved on scientific/technical merit for approximately five years.

"The goal of this new program is to help high school math teachers better understand what they are teaching and how children understand math," said Alan Lesgold, dean of Pitt's School of Education.

According to Smith, the coprincipal investigator of CORP, the project's curriculum will provide opportunities for teachers to improve their own skills related to reasoning and proving and to develop strategies for helping their students engage in these critical mathematical processes.

The project will receive a payment of $799,242 to fund the next two years of CORP research. Contingent on the scientific progress of the project during this time, NSF plans to disburse funding in the following yearly increments: 2009, $387,184; 2010, $484,325; and 2011, $430,519.

The NSF is an independent federal agency created by congress in 1950. With an annual budget of $5.92 billion, the NSF is the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported research conducted by America's colleges and universities.

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9/19/07/tmw