Building Capacity to Develop Elementary STEM Teacher Leaders in Iowa

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This project aims to serve the national need for increased STEM literacy by building capacity to develop an elementary STEM teacher leader program in Iowa. Many STEM education efforts address secondary STEM teacher needs. Yet, high-quality STEM education needs to begin for students during the elementary school years. The elementary teacher education program at the University of Northern Iowa is the largest in the state. However, most elementary school teachers have minimal experience with integrated STEM teaching prior to certification. This is due to the emphasis on English/Language Arts and Mathematics at the elementary level with less attention to science, especially in high-need schools. Further, few elementary teachers have science or STEM endorsements, which results in few high-quality elementary teachers who can practice and model best STEM teaching practices. This project will build capacity to develop an elementary STEM teacher leader program that would provide STEM professional development and leadership development for practicing elementary school teachers. In turn, these elementary STEM teacher leaders will model effective STEM teaching and support high-quality student teaching experiences in STEM for future elementary school teachers. This Capacity Building project at the University of Northern Iowa includes partnerships with stakeholders from local high-need schools, including Hoglan Elementary School and Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence. The goal of the project is to investigate the current state of elementary STEM education in Iowa and then to design a program that will develop elementary STEM teacher leaders. The project team will learn from faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who have successfully created an elementary STEM teacher leader program in their state, which shares educational similarities with Iowa. Additionally, the project team will adapt Horizon Research’s National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education and use this survey to collect evidence about the current state of elementary STEM teaching in high-need elementary schools from administrators and teachers. Survey results and follow-up interviews will be analyzed to establish the strengths and needs of elementary STEM educators in Iowa. Information from survey data analyses, combined with insights from the Nebraska program, will be used to design an elementary STEM teacher leader program at UNI. A four-member external Advisory Board representing STEM education university faculty, state-level STEM education professional development leaders, and administrators from high-need elementary schools in Iowa will guide and evaluate the project. This Capacity Building 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 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.