Excellence in STEM Teaching in Indiana through Integrating Engineering Practice and Design Principles

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

Excellence in STEM Teaching in Indiana is a Track 1 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program project. It represents a collaboration among Purdue University, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, and five high-need, rural Indiana school corporations. This project will strengthen Indiana's future by expanding the number and diversity of undergraduate students who pursue a STEM degree and career in secondary STEM teaching. These students will develop enhanced knowledge and skills for integrating engineering design into science, mathematics, and technology instruction. They will complete a rigorous plan of study with two characteristics. First, their degree will be in a STEM discipline that leads to state mathematics or science licensure. Second, the degree will include a concentration that focuses on how to use engineering practice and design in effective STEM disciplinary education. In this concentration, scholars will complete a comprehensive suite of four courses and field experiences that augment their STEM teaching degree requirements. In so doing, they will develop additional expertise in integrating engineering design into their teaching curricula. Additionally, the project will support these scholars after graduation in a three-year induction program that mentors them in their professional growth and development. This teacher scholarship program will support eight new scholars each year over four years for a total of 32. Each recipient will be eligible to receive up to two years of scholarship funding in the form of a forgivable loan. Recruitment efforts at the campus, state, and national levels will attract talented, high-achieving undergraduate students in biology, chemistry, physics, earth and atmospheric science, mathematics, engineering, and technology majors to become secondary STEM teachers. It will particularly focus on students from culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds and students with disabilities. By partnering with Ivy Tech Community Colleges in Indiana, Purdue University will leverage a single articulation agreement that allows students to seamlessly transfer between the two institutions. This will increase the pool of talented, next generation STEM teachers. Ivy Tech Community College is the largest public postsecondary institution in Indiana. It is also the largest single-accredited statewide community college system in the United States. In completing the Noyce program requirements, scholars will be classroom-ready to plan and implement high-quality STEM instruction. This instruction will emphasize the variety of conceptual connections among STEM subjects. It will do so using engineering design as an integrator. This will provide opportunities for making STEM learning more concrete and relevant to secondary students. This vision is resonant with current recommendations and reforms in STEM education. These include the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), Engineering in K-12 Education (Katehi et al., 2009), and Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). 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.