The University of Chattanooga's (UTC) College of Arts and Science, College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, Hamilton County schools and four other area school systems are collaborating to produce more and better quality secondary mathematics and science teachers. Specifically, the Noyce Scholarship Program is providing up to 30 two-year scholarships to 15 junior and senior STEM majors in the UTeaChattanooga program at UTC who commit to completing four years of teaching at the high school level in high-needs school districts and up to 80 internships for Freshman and Sophomore STEM majors. The goals of the UTeaChattanooga Noyce Scholarship Program are: (1) to attract highly qualified STEM majors to secondary science and mathematics teaching careers in high-needs schools; (2) to encourage traditionally underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines to major in STEM fields and seek secondary teacher licensure in mathematics and science; (3) to provide pedagogically and content/research rich experiences to STEM majors seeking secondary teaching licensure; (4) to increase the number of secondary math and science secondary educators, (5) to improve the mathematical and scientific preparation of these educators and (6) to provide comprehensive induction support for UTeaChattanooga Noyce Scholarship Program Scholars (UNSPSs) during their first two years of teaching, with special emphasis on the unique challenges of high-needs schools and their students. The UNSP program provides a choice of six intensive summer internships that strengthen the Scholars' content and research knowledge and provide pedagogically rich experiences for up to 110 UTeaChattanooga students across the five-year grant period. The UNSP initiative is enhancing the infrastructure for research and education through its research and pedagogical opportunities and partnerships with UTC faculty, Department of Energy National Laboratories, the Tennessee Aquarium and UTC's Upward Bound program.
