Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Track 2 Project: Kentucky Teachers Improving Education in STEM

About This Grant

This 5-year Noyce Track 2 project aims to serve the national need of preparing highly qualified STEM teachers. This project plans to support ten Teaching Fellows (TFs) by providing financial support for their master's degree as well as a yearly stipend and strategic STEM activities during their first four years of teaching. The project intends to prepare highly talented graduates from B.S. / B.A. programs in mathematics and science as well as career changers (who have a STEM undergraduate degree in the areas of Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, or Earth Science). It is proposed that TFs are anticipated to complete the Master’s of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Secondary STEM Education at the University of Kentucky (UK), which is a one-year fulltime program. Additionally, providing strategic STEM activities and support mechanisms to guide TFs through their first four years of their teaching career are integrated into the project design. This proposed project is expected to enable high-achieving prospective teachers to become secondary STEM teachers with extensive expertise in active learning instruction. This 5-year project at the University of Kentucky includes partnerships among UK's College of Arts & Sciences, College of Education, Fayette County Public Schools (a high-need school district), and local businesses and informal STEM learning entities. Project goals include: (1) Recruit a population of ten TFs in the STEM disciplines to become secondary STEM teacher leaders and increase the number of master's graduates in secondary STEM Education. (2) Assist the UK Noyce program's TFs in obtaining secondary teaching positions in high-needs Kentucky schools. (3) Retain the population of STEM TFs as they graduate from our MAT STEM program and become in-service teacher leaders in high-needs schools for at least four years. (4) Implement the MAT Secondary STEM Education program curriculum as a collaborative effort between UK partners and UK College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education in order to equip TFs in one year with a strong content preparation pathway to STEM teacher certification. (5) Provide TFs with carefully designed experiences that enable them to engage in face-to-face and virtual learning communities that promote pedagogical content knowledge, STEM research skills, stress coping skills, and the design and implementation of research-based curricular units. (6) Assist TFs in their pursuit of National Board Certification by their fourth year of teaching. This project plans to implement an iterative evaluation strategy. Evaluation of the project will be guided by several evaluation questions focusing on recruitment, impact of preparation and induction support. The project aims to disseminate findings that may enhance knowledge and practice within the field. This Track 2: Teaching Fellowships 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 effectiveness and retention 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.