Building Capacity to Transform Practices in STEM Education

The Building Capacity to Transform Practices in STEM Education project aims to serve the national need to address the shortage of highly qualified STEM teachers, which negatively impacts the delivery and quality of education provided to students in large high-need school districts. This project seeks to recruit and train biology and chemistry majors to become secondary teachers in New York City Department of Education schools. Activities include the development, outreach and recruitment efforts specifically focused on increasing the pool of prospective science teachers of color. The project will establish the inter- and intra- institutional structures for articulation, curricula, and other recruitment and training components for a future Medgar Evers College /Brooklyn College collaborative proposal. This capacity building project includes partnerships with the School of Education, the School of Science, Health and Technology at Medgar Evers College (MEC), and the School of Education at Brooklyn College (BC). The project will be structured as a 5-year BS/MA dual degree project across the two educational institutions and aims to create an academic pipeline that will support the successful transition of students from undergraduate education at MEC to graduate studies at BC. The project also plans to develop and pilot a sustainable learning community that will serve as a foundation for mentorship to support students from pre-service to in-service teaching, with a focus on the social and emotional wellness. The project will identify partners/stakeholders, and pilot professional development activities that will emphasize inquiry-based pedagogical workshops, and promote continuing education and retention of novice science teachers. This project is unique in its approach because it will holistically target factors that affect STEM teachers’ recruitment and retention and will potentially contribute to research on increasing the pool of prospective science teachers of color. 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.