The Utah STEM Master Educator Institute

This capacity building project will serve the national need for a well-prepared population of K-12 STEM teachers who can serve as leaders and role models within their schools. In particular, the project will develop new partnerships to support high quality training and professional learning for master STEM teachers serving high-need school districts in Utah.

Working across the state, the project will bring together local education agencies, multiple colleges and universities, and local STEM industry partners to create a STEM teacher training institute. The resulting STEM Master Educators Institute will support educators as they help to prepare students to work in Utah’s STEM industries. Specifically, the Institute is intended to increase leadership capacity within the Utah education community, promote innovative solutions to problems of practice in STEM education, and create a sustainable model for collaboration within and across schools.

To complete the project, the project leadership team will work with an experienced advisory board and representatives from multiple partners to design the Institute. The Institute will incorporate a “think tank” design to address key challenges in STEM education. The solutions developed by the Institute will reflect the collective knowledge of experienced K-12 and college-level educators, subject matter experts, and partners in the educational technology sector.

This project at Utah State University includes partnerships with Utah’s STEM Action Center, and several Utah institutions of higher education (Southern Utah University, Utah Valley University and University of Utah). Additionally, the Utah State Board of Education will support the planning process with the project leadership team to build durable relationships with local education partners that will complement and strengthen the Board's STEM efforts.

It is anticipated that master teachers and other Institute stakeholders will address challenges in distance learning, culturally aligned STEM content, integration of STEM across the disciplines, project-based learning, and K-12 science and math instruction. Project goals include the development of a novel, industry-based STEM teacher professional learning institute model.

The project’s research plan uses the lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to explore interactions between statewide educational systems to better understand the relationships between stakeholders and teacher education programs. 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 persistence, retention, and effectiveness 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.