Expanding STEM Education Pathways

The project aims to serve the national need by building capacity to prepare highly qualified secondary STEM educators who have the pedagogical and content knowledge required to teach effectively. This project will identify emerging areas within STEM and education courses and revise or develop new curricula to meet new needs and bridge existing gaps.

There is a growing demand for secondary STEM teachers in high-demand STEM areas, such as computer science, physics, and earth science. There is also a need for more diversity in STEM, not only within the profession but in who is teaching and ensuring there is representation of diverse contributors to the field within the undergraduate curriculum. The Education and STEM departments of Niagara University will work closely together and will also partner with local high-need school districts to meet these goals.

This project will result in new and improved pathways for undergraduate students to become secondary STEM teachers with the content knowledge and culturally relevant teaching methods that will ignite interest in emerging STEM disciplines for middle and high school students in high-need schools.

This project at Niagara University includes partnerships with Buffalo and Niagara Falls City School Districts, both high-need school districts. It centers on a deep collaboration between STEM and Education departments at Niagara University, taking a holistic and pragmatic approach to this project by building upon existing connections through the cross-disciplinary Teacher Education Academic Content (TEAC) committee and inclusion of in-service teachers from Buffalo and Niagara City School Districts.

The proposed project will broaden Niagara University's STEM education teacher preparation programs and enhance diversity and inclusive pedagogy in undergraduate STEM courses. STEM and education students at Niagara University will benefit from this project through new and revised inclusive curricula focusing on emerging areas within the fields. The crucial partnership between the STEM and education departments at Niagara University will serve as a model for other institutions of higher education desiring a more integrated and inclusive approach to teaching.

Results of this project will be disseminated internally and externally to appropriate stakeholders. 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.