Building Capacity to Develop Elementary STEM Teacher Leaders in New Jersey

The College Of New Jersey, Ewing NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The project aims to serve the national need to develop highly qualified elementary STEM teacher leaders within high-need schools. The project will address the need to prepare elementary teachers to effectively teach in alignment with new climate change education standards adopted by the State of New Jersey. To address this need, the project will partner with teachers from local high-need elementary schools to gather information about their STEM knowledge related to climate change and their interests in future professional development workshops and graduate program opportunities in this area. Based on these interactions and gathered evidence, The College of New Jersey will modify its STEM education graduate courses and Environmental Sustainability Education certificate program to serve future elementary STEM teacher leaders. The project could contribute to developing elementary STEM teacher leaders in the region, preparing them to support implementation of the new climate change standards and to promote high-quality STEM education for students more generally. This project at The College of New Jersey includes a partnership with the Hunterdon, Somerset, and Mercer County STEM Ecosystem (HSMC STEM Ecosystem), a partnership between schools, communities, businesses, and nonprofits dedicated to providing equitable access to STEM. The goal of the proposed project is to spend one year building capacity for a program to develop K-8 Master level teachers’ expertise in implementing STEM curriculum, with a specific focus on climate change. The project will build relationships with elementary STEM stakeholders from partner schools through introductory workshops and meetings exploring the new state K-12 climate change education standards. Additionally, the project will collect input from these stakeholders through surveys, site visits, and workshops. Evidence gathered will guide the revision of an existing 4-course graduate certificate program in Environmental Sustainability Education to address the new state standards for climate change content and to align with emerging elementary STEM teacher needs. Two leaders of a current Noyce Capacity Building effort in another state, also focused on elementary STEM teacher professional development, will serve as critical friends and mentors, providing feedback to the project. Additionally, an advisory board, which includes a STEM faculty member, an education faculty member, and a local elementary STEM teacher leader, will evaluate evidence gathered and progress towards project outcomes. The outcomes of this Noyce Capacity Building effort could produce a model for developing highly qualified elementary STEM teacher leaders generally, as well as elementary teacher leaders in climate change education more specifically. The involvement of stakeholders from local high-need elementary schools suggests that the resulting professional development and certificate program designs would effectively serve teachers in these contexts. The grounding of all efforts in the recently adopted New Jersey K-12 State climate education standards is likely to produce insights that could be a model for other campuses and teacher education programs across the state and beyond. This Capacity Building 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.