The University of North Texas (UNT) Science and Mathematics Robert Noyce Scholarships program is training 55 high school science and mathematics teacher candidates and supporting graduates in their early years of teaching in high need school districts, primarily in urban areas of North Texas. The project is being supported by the strong infrastructure of the Teach North Texas program, UNT's replication of the successful UTeach program. UNT is partnering with Fort Worth Independent School District and Denton Independent School District to provide high quality field experiences for teacher candidates and mentoring for beginning teachers. Scholarships are being provided both for senior undergraduates who are majoring in Mathematics, Biology, or Chemistry and for post-baccalaureate students who majored in mathematics or science and are seeking secondary teaching certification. In addition to completing mathematics or science majors, undergraduate students in this program are completing minors in Mathematics and Science Secondary Teaching and are being prepared for the licensure examinations from the Texas Examinations of Educators Standards. Scholarship recipients are being provided with technology toolkits and are being trained to use these toolkits to effectively integrate technology into their classrooms. Support during the induction years includes mentoring by a Master Teacher in the school, mentoring by a University Supervisor that visits the classroom and provides evaluative feedback, and an online mentoring forum that encourages the exchange of ideas on content-specific and pedagogical instructional strategies. The project includes a longitudinal study of the impact of the Noyce Scholarship program on individuals supported under UNT's earlier Robert Noyce Scholarship award.
