Adventures in Supercomputing: An innovative program

Within the realm of education, seldom does an innovative program become available with the potential to change an educator`s teaching methodology and serve as a spur to systemic reform. The Adventures in Supercomputing (AiS) program, sponsored by the Department of Energy, is such a program. Adventures in Supercomputing is a program for high school and middle school teachers. It has helped to change the teaching paradigm of many of the teachers involved in the program from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom. ``A student-centered classroom offers better opportunities for development of internal motivation, planning skills, goal setting and perseverance than does the traditional teacher-directed mode``. Not only is the process of teaching changed, but evidences of systemic reform are beginning to surface. After describing the program, the authors discuss the teaching strategies being used and the evidences of systemic change in many of the AiS schools in Tennessee