Blazing the Trail for STEM Teachers: A Noyce Capacity Building Project

Saint Anselm College, Manchester NH

Investigators

Abstract

The "Blazing the Trail for STEM Teachers: A Noyce Capacity Building Project" aims to address the demand for qualified STEM teachers in the high-need school district of Manchester, New Hampshire. The long-term goal of the project team is to create a comprehensive program at Saint Anselm College (SAC) that will recruit, prepare, and support an increased number of STEM majors skilled at teaching in high-needs urban schools. This goal is relevant to resolving the critical shortage of qualified secondary STEM teachers in Manchester and across New Hampshire. In this project, the PI and Co-PI will work with other members of the SAC community to determine whether an innovative semester-long after-school teaching experience is effective for recruiting SAC STEM majors to pursue a joint degree in education. This project will lay the foundation for a future Noyce Teacher Scholarships and Stipends (Track 1) proposal. The project has three primary goals: (1) gauge the interest of STEM majors in STEM teaching as a profession; (2) improve the perception of STEM students and faculty regarding a teaching career; and (3) increase the number of STEM students pursuing a joint education degree and a degree in a STEM discipline. The project will be driven by two interrelated objectives: (1) determine whether a semester-long after-school teaching experience can attract STEM majors to consider a career in teaching; and (2) identify the root cause(s) of the current low interest in STEM education, so that interventions can be designed. Research approaches include assessment of STEM major interest via the STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) taken by all first year SAC STEM majors. Attitudes about urban schools and students will be measured with a pre-/post-questionnaire and an exit interview. The interest in STEM education across campus will be measured with a survey developed by the project team, the "STEM Faculty Attitudes about Teaching as a Career Survey." This project will expand the Noyce portfolio by adding the perspective of a small, urban, liberal-arts college and by impacting Manchester, NH, a community with a large refugee population. 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.