Underrepresented Engineers as Mathematics Teachers in Their Home Communities

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Washington State University is offering scholarships in the amount of $10,000 to twelve underrepresented engineering students to encourage them to remain in school an additional year to earn a teaching certificate and return to their home communities as high school math teachers. Because they are engineers, the incremental education needed to teach mathematics in high school is relatively small and they can use engineering examples to provide motivation for the study of mathematics. The new teachers serve as role models and are able to encourage more of their students to pursue professional careers in science and engineering. The engineering students in the program are recruited from south central Washington. The average resident of this area has a substantially smaller income and is much less likely to hold a BS degree than the average Washington State resident. Further, students from this area are more likely to be of Hispanic ethnicity and to attend high needs schools. They are motivated toward a teaching career by the desire of many students to return to their home communities, the relatively high pay for teachers in Washington, and support features that are effective at keeping teachers in the classroom during the critical first two years of their careers. A unique aspect of this project is the placement of the teachers in paid internship summer jobs in industry to augment their salary and keep them active in the engineering profession.A significant result of this project is enhanced educational opportunities for students from Hispanic backgrounds. Each of the 12 new teachers trained in this program (four each year in years 2 through 4 of the program) influences 120 students per year. Over the four years of service required by the grant, these teachers will influence nearly 6000 students. Moreover, students will benefit from more relevant education (because engineers use math on a daily basis and can provide a real context for lesson topics) and be exposed to professional opportunities that they may not have known about previously.