This project aims to serve the national need for a greater number of highly qualified STEM teachers. To do so, it will create the Robert Noyce Spatial Thinking Academy, which will be designed to motivate talented STEM students and professionals to become successful STEM teachers in high-need public schools. In the process of moving to certification, the future teachers will improve their spatial thinking knowledge and skills. In addition, they will learn to use spatial thinking as an approach to improve their students' STEM learning. The project will provide two pathways to New York State Teacher Certification: Pathway 1 for recent STEM graduates and Pathway 2 for STEM workforce professionals. Three combined cohorts of Pathway 1 and Pathway 2 students will receive scholarships or stipends. Through the Spatial Thinking Academy, the project will: (1) train and retain talented individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds in STEM education; (2) increase future teachers' understanding of the context in which STEM learning occurs in both informal and formal settings; and (3) increase the capacity of highly qualified STEM educators to advance learning of STEM concepts by reinforcing them with spatial thinking skills.
This project at Saint John's University includes partnerships with New York City metropolitan area high-three need school districts (Yonkers, New York School District and School District 31 in Staten Island). The goal of the project will be to recruit, support, and retain talented STEM graduates who will pursue a career as a biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, or mathematics teacher in high-need public schools. In doing so, the Spatial Thinking Academy will support 36 talented STEM graduates to serve in these schools and will provide two pathways leading to New York State Teacher Initial Certification. Pathway 1 is designed for 24 recent Saint John's graduates with STEM majors. Pathway 2 is designed for 12 STEM professionals seeking initial teaching certification as career changers. Both Pathway 1 and 2 future teachers will enroll in a one-year master's degree in education and will receive scholarships or stipends for that year. Through a longitudinal mixed methods research approach, the project investigators will: (a) design, test, and verify a STEM teaching residency model intended to be sustainable and adaptable at other universities; (b) test and verify institutional policies and best practices to increase the number of STEM majors from culturally diverse communities who pursue careers in teaching; (c) review, modify, and implement institutional strategies that provide a career pathway for STEM majors to pursue careers as STEM educators; (d) design, test, verify, and validate curricula that recognize the importance of spatial thinking as a 21st-century STEM educational, professional, and career-readiness skill; and (e) design, test, and validate a model for ongoing professional development and instructional coaching for STEM teachers. Testing and validation will be conducted by tracking scholars prior to participation, during the program period, and for one year following employment in the partner school districts. The study will explore not only future teachers' abilities to connect spatial skills and STEM subjects, but also their ability to teach STEM topics from the perspective of spatial thinking. The results of this work may have far-reaching implications for connecting spatial cognition research with STEM teaching practice throughout the country. This Track 1—Scholarships and Stipends—project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
