Leveraging Partners in Emergent Technologies to Support STEM Teachers Across Idaho

The project aims to serve the national need of preparing prospective STEM teachers who are able to integrate emerging and innovative technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), into their classrooms. The project will leverage industry and community partnerships to offer paid summer internships, providing prospective teachers hands-on teaching experience through summer technology camps for middle grades students. The project will also provide scholarships to enable 35 high-achieving prospective teachers to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline. In addition, the project will provide stipends for recent graduates to participate in coursework that prepares them to be teacher leaders. The project has the potential to develop a teacher workforce that is well-educated on the use of new technologies in schools across Idaho. This project at Boise State University includes partnerships with school districts, local tech companies, and other tech experts across campus. Project goals include (1) supplying Idaho with 35 highly-qualified secondary STEM teachers over five years while increasing representation to better match Idaho’s student population, and (2) preparing teachers to support district initiatives in emergent high-tech industry needs such as AI, Data Science, and Microelectronics, who also center student belonging and celebrate student and community assets. The theory of action is that education communities should partner with experts in industry to leverage resources that will help recruit, support, and retain a highly-qualified, diverse cadre of STEM teachers. Research findings will inform the development of similar partnerships between universities, industry and nonprofits to ensure high-quality STEM teacher education in response to regional and national high-tech industry needs. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends 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.