| The T³ movement began in 1986 when Professors Bert K. Waits and Franklin Demana of The Ohio State University began writing the original materials for Precalculus: A Graphing Approach and teaching these materials to high school and college classes in Columbus, OH. They co-taught the course with local high school teachers during the spring of 1987 and during the 1987-1988 academic year.
In the summer of 1988, the first Computers and Calculators in Precalculus (C²PC) Institutes were offered. More than 80 teachers from around the nation participated in a weekend, a one-week, or a two-week institute on the OSU campus. These teachers learned to use graphing calculators and to appreciate the power of visualization in the teaching and learning of mathematics.
In the summer of 1989 there were four weeklong C²PC institutes at OSU. One hundred twenty-five teachers from 31 states were trained to use graphing calculators to enhance the teaching and learning of pre-calculus. Recognizing that the visualization of mathematics was not limited to higher-level courses, Professors Waits and Demana also worked with 14 Ohio lead teachers to design materials that would allow mathematics teachers of grades 7-10 to use this powerful tool with their middle and high school students.
In 1990 there were two one-week Precalculus institutes (C²PC) at OSU with 76 participants from 32 states. In addition, similar week-long Precalculus institutes were offered to high school teachers in 12 other states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The program continued to expand, and in 1991, 81 teachers from 30 states and Canada participated in the two C²PC institutes at OSU.
Professors Waits and Demana visited and taught special topics at institutes offered in Alaska, California, Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. They also directed TRANSIT, a two-week developmental institute attended by 10 teams, each consisting of a middle school, a high school, and a college instructor. These teachers from eight states met at OSU to create modules for teaching mathematical topics implementing the use of the graphing .
In 1992, more than 350 teachers participated in 20 C²PC institutes in 11 states. There were three institutes at OSU and 80 participants attended from 30 states and Japan. The 1992 TRANSIT group at OSU included eight three-person teams from eight states.
During the 1992-1993 academic year, Professors Waits and Demana realized that they could no longer personally conduct or visit the rapidly increasing number of institutes. At this time they also decided to address the need for additional institutes for algebra and calculus. As a result, 34 high school teachers under the direction of Professors Waits and Demana cooperated in the preparation of materials for the algebra (AC²E), precalculus (C²PC), and calculus (C³E) institutes. At the same time, the program was given its current name: T³ - Teachers Teaching with Technology™.
In the summer of 1993, these teachers presented a total of 73 institutes in 36 states with Dr. Demana or Dr. Waits making a presentation at most institutes. That summer more than 2,000 high school teachers were trained to use and to integrate graphing technology into the mathematics curriculum. In 1994, the number of T³ instructors increased to 49. That summer more than 3,000 teachers attended the 114 institutes in 40 states and Canada. These institutes included Connecting Mathematics and Science (CMS), an institute developed and piloted in 1994 and widely released in 1995.
On October 4, 1994, the administrative headquarters of the K-12 T³ program moved from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH to The University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, TX. In 1995 the T³ program faced the challenge of developing more institutes - that is, expanding the content offerings and the corps of instructors without compromising the quality of any aspect of the program. T³ instructors, under the leadership of college or university professors, developed four new titles: Geometry (GEO), Statistics (STAT), Middle School Mathematics (MSM), and Elementary School Mathematics (ELEM). The T³ college short course program remained at The Ohio State University. 1994 was also the first year that the T³ International Conference was held in Fort Worth, TX, the first year it was not in Columbus.
In addition, the T³ program investigated materials designed by groups outside its own network as another way to increase the number of topics that could be offered. Groups under consideration had received recognition for their expertise in mathematics education, for their use of technology, and for their high-quality staff development programs. The first such group to affiliate with the T³ program was The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and their institute Modeling and Data Analysis (MODEL) became the first T³ affiliate institute.
As a result of this explosion of course offerings, there were more than 6,000 teachers participating in 211 institutes in 42 states and Puerto Rico during the summer of 1995. Also in the summer of 1995 a team at Penn State University developed a second affiliate institute. This two-week institute was named CIA/CAS to reflect that the materials use computer algebra systems in the teaching of algebra courses. At the same time, a similar institute for calculus teachers, CAE-Calc, was developed at The Ohio State University under the leadership of T3 instructors. Both the OSU and Penn State institutes were piloted at several sites during the summer of 1996.
CHEM/BIO, another science institute, was developed during the 1995-1996 academic year. The development team included T³ instructors and leaders in the science education community. The CHEM/BIO institute was offered at a few pilot sites in 1996 and was widely released in 1997. In the fall of 1996, the T3 program moved from Arlington to Dallas, TX to become a more integral part of Texas Instruments.
During the summer of 1997, Elementary Plus Much, Much More (EM+), Advanced Statistics (APSTAT), and Analytical Geometry (AnalytGEO) were developed and piloted. They were widely released for the summer or 1998. Dealing with Data in Middle School Math and Science (DwD) was developed in July of 1997 and was piloted during the summer of 1998. Also during the summer of 1997, another affiliate institute was added, Integrated Mathematics on the TI-92 (IM92). Systemic Initiative developed this program for the Montana Mathematics and Science project (SIMMS). By the end of August 1997, the T³ program had directly served more than 30,000 classroom teachers and hundreds of thousands of students have benefited from the expertise of these T3-trained teachers! Two new institutes were piloted during the summer of 1999: Elementary Science (ElemSci) and Integrating Multiple Technologies (IMT). Two new institutes were also added: Advanced Algebra, Data, and Technology (in collaboration with Key Curriculum Press Inc.) and MATH Connections (in collaboration with It's About Time). In addition to these new institutes, several existing institutes have received major revisions. The original AC2E institute became ACE I and ACE II to better serve Pre-algebra/Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 teachers, respectively; MSM was redesigned to allow organizers and instructors to customize the summer offering to better meet the needs of participants. Since the College Board* now allows students to use a computer algebra system on the AP* Calculus Exam, two previous T³ calculus institutes (C³E and CAE-Calc) were combined and offered as AP Calculus (TI-89). The T³ International Conference was back in Dallas in 1999 and host over 3,000 participants from all over the world.
In the summer of 2000, the Environmental Science Institute was piloted at Biosphere 2 in Arizona and at Camp McGregor in Michigan. The Vernier CMBL Workshop, a new affiliate, was offered at six locations. Another affiliate workshop also emerged during this time, Algebra 1 with Holt Rinehart Winston and Algebra 2 with Holt Rinehart Winston. This workshop used T³ materials and was supplemented with the HRW textbook, which made for a much stronger implementation plan for teachers using that text. HRW funded 5 of these institutes. A new program was started, the Discovery workshop program which targeted new users of technology with one and two day workshops given throughout the country.
2001 brought on a big change for the T³ program as we moved away from offering so many minigrants and started offering a more customized service through Professional Development Packages. Sixty-nine institutes were funded during the summer of 2001. The remaining funding was moved to new programs to reach new audiences. An examples of one of these new programs is the Tfas (Technology For All Students) program. The Tfas program is our very popular systemic train the trainer program. A new affiliate workshop came to fruition, Physics Teaching Resources Agents.
Professional development packages more than doubled in size in 2002 and we brought back by popular demand T³ Regional Conferences, 10 were held that year. In our strive to reach more teachers we added T³ Online Courses. Our first online course was Algebra Using the TI-83 Plus. Several new institutes were also added this year - AgPrep, Integrated Physics and Chemistry/Algebra 1, Math A for New York, Math B for New York and several new college short courses.
2003 saw another explosive growth in offerings for the T³ program. Integrating Calculators in the Elementary Classroom for Para-Professionals, Vernier/T³ Middle School Science with Texas Instruments Handhelds, Algebra for Middle Grades and Secondary Para-professionals, Algebra 1 for Novice Users, Algebra 1 for Experienced Users, Algebra 2 for Novice Users, Algebra 2 for Experienced Users, Exploring TI-Navigator™, Learn to Use TI InterActive!, Social Studies, Vernier/T³ Biology with Texas Instruments Handhelds, Vernier/T³ Chemistry with Texas Instruments Handhelds, Vernier/T³ Earth Science with Texas Instruments Handhelds, Vernier/T³ Physics with Texas Instruments Handhelds were all added to the list of available institutes. The online course program expanded to include two new courses, Calculus Using the TI-83 Plus and Vernier Data Collection and Analysis. T³ Online Coaching and TI Math Tutor, online follow up for teachers and students, were also added to our list of offerings.
*AP and College Board are registered trademarks of the College Entrance Examination Board.
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