This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Fresno State Teaching Fellows (FRESTEF) program at California State University-Fresno is increasing the pool of highly qualified science and mathematics teachers in the Central Valley of California through a comprehensive design requiring Fellows to complete either a Master of Arts or Master of Science degree in the sciences or mathematics, in conjunction with completion of requirements for a secondary school teaching credential, thus creating excellent bridges between pedagogy and advanced STEM content. The program features extensive involvement of STEM faculty through instruction in graduate level programs, professional development workshops, and mentoring of FRESTEF Fellows. The program builds upon the strong foundation of two successful Noyce programs by offering special programmatic support for the Fellows, including seminars on teaching in high needs schools, summer research opportunities with established programs at the U.S. Department of Energy Labs, and exemplary summer institutes which provide future and current science and mathematics teachers with high quality, research-based curricula. The project is providing fellowships and support to 18 highly trained science and mathematics teachers who are expected to become key role models and leaders in their school districts. Through extensive involvement of FRESTEF Fellows with the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)/Noyce Commons and emerging on-line community, the products of the Fellows program (including contributions in the form of on-line publications, lessons, and other teaching and learning resources) are being widely disseminated throughout the Noyce community in California. Partners include the Central Valley Science Project, San Joaquin Valley Mathematics Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Math for America, and the Science Teacher and Researcher Program. School district partners include Fresno, Clovis, Madera County, and Fowler School Districts.
