The goal of this Noyce Teacher Scholarship and Stipend, Phase II project is to train 40 highly qualified secondary STEM teachers to teach in the metropolitan Houston area. This project will build on a current Phase I project that has established a summer internship program, in which first and second year students teach under the supervision of master teachers, and key principals of research in education and learning sciences have been integrated into STEM coursework. Through this project, the internship program will be continued and a new pipeline will be created to recruit students from an area community college, Wharton County Junior College. The scholarship recipients will participate in (a) a professional development workshop that includes interns and Noyce graduates, (b) new biology and chemistry inquiry courses, and (c) a pre-induction/induction mentoring program.
The project has several elements (such as early advisement) that are designed to create a seamless transfer for community college students and support their retention as pre-service STEM teachers. Using an enhanced UTeach model, potential Noyce scholars already at the institution will receive exposure to teaching through intensive field experiences that focus on approaches to teaching and inquiry-based lesson design during their first two years of college. All scholars will have the opportunity to participate in summer institutes that will address the improvement of content knowledge and instructional approaches while they are undergraduates and after they have been placed as teachers. During these institutes, scholars will be advised by mentors, providing professional development opportunities for each group. Two new courses (Biology by Inquiry and Chemistry by Inquiry) will be developed based on a successful course that is being used for upper-level, pre-service Physics teachers. Both formative and summative assessments will be performed to determine the extent to which the project goals are met in the short- and long-term and, where applicable, how the project elements may need to be adapted to maximize student benefits. Evaluation will be implemented through surveys, interviews and focus groups. Presentations, demonstrations, digital stories, and publications, will be disseminated at STEM conferences sponsored by the National Science Teachers Association, The American Physics Association, and the American Chemical Society.
