This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Cal Teach at Berkeley Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is supporting undergraduate students in mathematics, science and engineering toward their disciplinary degrees and K-12 teaching credentials, with a focus on teaching in urban schools. The program is engaging 12 lower division students per year in math and science teaching through summer internships with local research, professional development, and outreach partners, and is providing scholarships to 10 upper division students per year who are engaged in the new Cal Teach program. The scholarship awards are highly visible within the STEM disciplines, and are identified as awards reflecting student accomplishment and prestige. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program is building on the growing program that Cal Teach has created to encourage STEM undergraduates at Berkeley to pursue careers in math and science teaching, particularly in urban schools, and on strong existing partnerships with local school districts (Berkeley, Emery, and Oakland Unified) and with local research and outreach institutions (Lawrence Hall of Science and the Chabot Space and Science Center). Cal Teach is an integrated program, with early and frequent field placements; this allows aspiring teachers to develop both deep subject matter understanding and exemplary pedagogical skills as they engage in both theory and practice. To accomplish this, Cal Teach engages faculty from the STEM content areas as well as from the Graduate School of Education through an interdisciplinary approach to teacher preparation that has been shown to be critical in the context of training secondary math and science teachers for urban schools, where high quality teachers are severely lacking. Cal Teach is committed to equity in education for every student, promoting social justice through mathematics and science learning. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program brings outstanding students who share this commitment into Cal Teach, with the goal of simultaneous disciplinary degrees in STEM majors and a teaching credential in math or science.
