RIT/NazEd Tech2Teach: Developing Institutional Commitment to STEM Teacher Preparation

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This capacity building project is laying the foundation for a Learning Assistant (LA) program to attract talented STEM undergraduates to careers in secondary education. The LA program, developed at the University of Colorado-Boulder, combines classroom teaching experience, directed faculty mentorship, and formal instruction on the science of how people learn to dramatically increase student interest in secondary teaching careers. This project is taking a comprehensive approach: attracting undergraduate STEM majors at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), providing a path, Tech2Teach, through Nazareth College of Rochester to certification in secondary education, and developing connections with existing high school teacher groups to provide continuing support. The project has three specific goals1. to educate and facilitate faculty development through peer group targeted workshops,2. to develop critical infrastructure, including online resources and a new course on pedagogy, and implement an LA program, and3. to extend and enhance existing collaborations with Nazareth College's School of Education (Tech2Teach) and the local Rochester Area Physics Teacher Out-Reach (RAPTOR).The broad impact of this project lies in the large number of faculty and students directly affected by the proposed activities. The physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics departments at RIT currently include 136 faculty and 853 undergraduate majors. Through an innovative social network analysis approach that identifies teaching peer groups, the project is involving more than 70 faculty in development workshops and seminars to prepare them to mentor students in the LA program. Deep support from all involved departments is enabling the project to reach more than 400 students, educating them about the possibilities of a career in secondary education. In the second year, an LA program will be initiated that will pair 16 students with faculty mentors in classes that affect up to 500 students in STEM classes.