This program focuses on developing and evaluating key elements necessary to implement the Normandale Community College Educational Training Center (EdTraC) project. The goals of the project are to increase the number of future teachers at Normandale Community College who choose a mathematics or science specialty, to improve the science, technology and mathematics preparation of all students in the elementary education program (K-8 licensure), and to attract talented and diverse students into the teaching field by recruiting from underrepresented or nontraditional populations. The EdTraC office is establishing a database to identify and track elementary education students on campus and begin gathering data, developing a process for identifying students for core-course and math-science specialty cohorts, developing an internal website for project personnel, instructors, and pre-service teachers, and working with two partner high schools to create and pilot a process for recruitment events and ambassador visits. The PI team continues to build on its 2 + 2 partnership with Minnesota State University (MSU), Mankato, through which students complete the prerequisites for the MSU Mankato elementary education program and may choose to complete the entire four-year program at the Normandale Community College campus. They are also developing and piloting three new courses to meet the needs of future teachers. These include a physics course that satisfies general education requirements and provides content appropriate for elementary teachers, a Technology for Math course to introduce pre-service teachers to technology that can be integrated into mathematics, and a Technology for Teachers course to teach pre-service educators methods for integrating technology into the K-8 classroom.
