Energizing STEM Teaching Across Rural Schools

Juniata College, Huntingdon PA

Investigators

Abstract

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, the Juniata College Energizing STEM Teaching Across Rural Schools (E-STARS) program recruits undergraduate majors in biology, chemistry, geology, math and physics, to additionally earn their secondary teaching certification to teach science or mathematics in grades 7 to 12, focusing on underserved, and underperforming rural schools. The project is funding a minimum of 20 scholarships over five years. Juniata College is collaborating with Huntingdon Area School District, Juniata Valley School District, Mount Union Area School District, and Southern Huntingdon Area School District. The E-STARS Scholarship program will bring together Juniata science, mathematics, and education faculty, and Juniata's Science in Motion (SIM) educators in partnerships with neighboring rural school districts, to graduate more engaged educators who have experience in and are equipped with tools to negotiate the challenging rural teaching environment. Upon graduation, E-STARS Scholars will have developed a solid foundation in their respective STEM fields, have a plethora of high quality curricular resources, and will also have completed a training program that is enriched with hands-on, inquiry based teaching experiences highlighting the uniqueness of populations in underserved rural middle and high schools. In addition to the scholarships in the junior and senior years, the project will fund summer opportunities for freshmen and sophomore STEM students to explore the educational field in a 5 week summer course which will include three college credits of course material over three weeks on the foundational structure of education systems and an additional credit for 70 field placement hours in schools including: 40 hours with an in-service teacher in his/her rural math or science classroom and 30 additional hours traveling and presenting science labs with the Juniata College SIM outreach program. E-STARS scholars will also fully participate each summer in STEM focused workshops for in-service teachers. In addition, each E-STARS scholar will receive a summer stipend for working on research or an internship that is STEM education focused. All scholars will participate in state and national professional organizations, attending and presenting at their respective conferences. The E-STARS Leadership Team will work with an external evaluator to understand the effectiveness of the program. The evaluation will be used to develop evidence-based recommendations for enhancing the training of rural STEM educators at other mid-sized liberal-arts institutions of higher education, which will be disseminated by the Leadership Team at state and national scientific and mathematical professional conferences.