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History
StaffWith 15 years of service to the Capital Region, CAIMS is a dynamic resource center for inquiry-based P-12 science and mathematics education. As part of the Outreach initiatives at Penn State Harrisburg, CAIMS has made its mark in the region by finding solutions and delivering research-based materials and practices to schools.
CAIMS was established in the early 1990s by businesses and the community of the greater Harrisburg area, under the auspices of the Council for Public Education as part of national Goals 2000 project. CAIMS facilitates school district personnel in identifying their needs, guides the school professionals in determining the appropriate services to meet the needs, and delivers the services the district requests. All services are infused in research-based best practices and in national and state math and science standards, delivered through the theory-of-action framework developed by the National Science Resources Center.
In 2006 CAIMS formed an alliance with the Penn State College of Medicine, creating the Interdisciplinary Research and Outreach Consortium for the Sciences (IROCS) informed by a shared concern about the crisis in science education and the waning interest in careers in science at all levels. The IROCS alliance provides
- The best in science content and science education pedagogy
- Working laboratory experiences for teachers and students
- Science mentors
- Access to current medical technology
Successes:
- Services to more than 30 school districts, impacting thousands of students with the potential to affect tens of thousands more in the future.
- Evaluation data show that students in schools using CAIMS’ services performed consistently better overall on international (TIMSS) measures of mathematics and science understanding.
- CAIMS now offers an expanded scope of services in STEM education and has formed an alliance with the Penn State College of Medicine to offer even more to Capital Region schools.