Developing STEM Teachers Across Rural Schools: Using STEM Outreach Programs to Build and Strengthen Identity as STEM Teachers

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The project aims to serve the national need for preparing high-quality teachers in STEM disciplines, which is particularly severe in rural southern Colorado. Adams State University’s project will examine the effects of place-based high-impact experiences and cost-of-attendance scholarships on developing effective STEM teachers in high-need schools. Using the excitement of astronomy and rural dark skies, collaborative math and science circles, STEM Saturdays, and a summer academy for migrant students, this project aims to inspire prospective and practicing teachers to develop new approaches in STEM teaching and learning and generate P-20 enthusiasm for careers in K-12 STEM education. This model has the potential to increase the number of students completing STEM degrees with teaching licensure from a single Adams State student to eight per year. Increased representation of underserved groups among rural teachers to improve equity in access to STEM education and careers for students of color and those who are low-income is a priority outcome. This project at Adams State University, a Hispanic-Serving Institution, includes partnerships with five high-need local school districts and the San Luis Valley Board of Cooperative Educational Services to address the need for STEM teachers across the rural San Luis Valley. Project goals include implementing astronomy-themed activities, hands-on workshops, mentoring, and other collaborative STEM programming to engage prospective teachers as innovators and leaders. These high-impact experiences and annual scholarships aim to inspire 31 undergraduate STEM majors (e.g., in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and geosciences) and post-baccalaureates to complete degrees and teaching licensure in 4 years. Engaging K-12 students and prospective teachers with local assets, such as ASU’s planetarium and observatory and the dark skies of Great Sand Dunes National Park, have the potential to attract and retain students as they develop their passion for STEM studies and teaching. The project’s research questions focus on the impacts of this intentional P-20 STEM ecosystem of local resources and supportive activities, which aim to validate students’ focus on STEM and grow their identities as effective teachers, leaders, and future mentors working in high-need districts. This pilot effort will generate knowledge on identity development of students in STEM education and add to the evidence on closing gaps in the representation of ethnic and racial minorities and females in STEM fields. Successful strategies will provide a model that other Hispanic-Serving Institutions and school districts may replicate. An evaluator will review institutional and survey data to monitor progress in objectives attainment and inform improvements. ASU will disseminate findings via its website, a regional educator newsletter, conferences, and journal publication. 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 effectiveness and retention 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.