Sunshine Scholars is a project focused on increasing the number, quality, and diversity of prospective mathematics and science teachers through an interdisciplinary program undertaken through teacher training and pre-training activities. The primary audience includes community college students and high school and middle school students. The program provides community college students with enhanced proficiency in science and mathematics, as well as in pedagogy. Middle and high school students are recruited into careers in science and mathematics teaching.
Each year a cohort of Collegiate Scholars, including both Science/Mathematics/Technology majors and Education majors, begins a two-year program leading to transfer to a teacher preparation program at a four-year school. In addition to content knowledge, Collegiate Scholars learn how to present that knowledge in the classroom. Regular contact with industry representatives and sites reveals to students the connections between industry and the instruction of K-12 students. After suitable training, Collegiate Scholars become Teaching Scholars. At this stage, they enter middle school classrooms in low-income schools to teach mathematics and science lessons and to bring up-to-date subject matter and technology to the schools. Faculty Subject Advisors from the college assist the scholars in lesson preparation.
Pre-Collegiate Scholars, a group of high school students formed each year, experience mathematics and science activities and interact with the Collegiate Scholars, possibly becoming the next generation of Collegiate Scholars. Summer mathematics-science-technology institutes for rising ninth graders and run by graduates of the Sunshine Scholars program, build interest in the disciplines.
