Supporting and Preparing Future STEM teachers through Scholarships and Teaching Experiences

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The project aims to serve the national need for STEM teachers by providing scholarships and support to help high-achieving students complete their undergraduate STEM degrees and teacher certifications. In addition to scholarships, the project will implement several evidence-based and innovative strategies that introduce students to teaching and provide teaching experiences early. In the process, the project will focus on developing STEM discipline and pedagogical content knowledge for future teachers, while dispelling misconceptions about high-need schools. Project components will include winter intersession and summer internship programs to provide early placement and field experiences related to high-need schools. Likewise, the project will implement a program where pre-service teachers work with experts to create STEM learning activities that will be shared with local schools. Scholars will receive career-related support, mentorship and exposure to topics such as teaching in high-need schools, trauma-informed teaching, and culturally responsive pedagogy.This project at SUNY College at Geneseo is collaborating with Monroe Community College (MCC), and includes partnerships with Dansville Central, a high-need rural school district near Geneseo, and East Rochester, a high-need school district near MCC. This project also partners with the New York State Master Teacher Program, a community of STEM teachers dedicated to developing expertise in content and pedagogy. As an integral part of the project, master teachers will provide scholars and first-year teachers with mentorship and networking. The primary goals of this five-year project are to: recruit, retain, support, graduate, and place eighteen (18) highly qualified STEM teachers; implement and evaluate evidence-based and innovative strategies for improving teacher preparation; improve self-efficacy of STEM undergraduate majors pursuing secondary certification; and support and evaluate programming aimed at helping STEM teacher candidates become highly effective in-service STEM educators. This project will be guided by past research and theories related to the role of self-efficacy, teaching community support, and the need to adjust notions related to the nature of high-need schools as part of teacher development and retention. Evaluation will use a mixed methods approach aimed at indicating the level that the project goals are met and to what extent scholars apply their knowledge to high-need classroom settings. The project’s leadership team will disseminate findings at conferences and via publications so that others might gain new insights to help improve teacher preparation programs and fuel the STEM teaching community. In addition, teaching materials created by interns and scholars will be available to local schools beyond the project. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.