This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the number of highly qualified and effective STEM teachers in the United States, particularly in a high-growth, high-need region of central Utah. To do so, it will recruit high-achieving juniors or seniors pursuing baccalaureate STEM degrees in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Earth Science. These students will receive scholarships and be supported to become STEM teachers through mentoring, content enrichment, professional development, and applied classroom experience. The project will support these future teachers to develop deep STEM content knowledge, as well as skills in critical thinking, inquiry learning techniques, and classroom management. Students in the classrooms of these well-prepared new teachers are expected to have a greater understanding of STEM concepts, be better prepared for success in college, and more likely to pursue STEM careers. In this way, the project expects to help meet 21st century workforce needs. Moreover, through the emphasis on professional engagement, the teachers prepared through this project may have increased potential to become leaders in their schools and districts, and in state and national education.
In this project, Utah Valley University will partner with Snow College, a two-year college, as well as the high-needs school districts of Alpine, Provo, Nebo, and South Sanpete. An underlying project goal is to increase the number of secondary STEM teachers in high-need local educational agencies in Utah by: (1) awarding scholarships to 50 science and mathematics majors and providing them with a strong pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher support program focused on professional engagement; 2) strengthening recruitment of future teachers from Snow College; and (3) conducting longitudinal assessment and research about effective ways to recruit, train, and retain a high-quality teacher workforce. Project evaluation will include a longitudinal mixed methods study to investigate the impact of project activities on teacher retention and eventual leadership. The project team plans to disseminate project results, including information about the value of teacher identity and community across a network of schools, districts, and colleges for increasing teacher development and retention. 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.
