- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1439862
- First Name Lisa
- Last Name Lamb
- Discipline Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Physics
- Co-PI(s)
Donna Ross, San Diego State University, DLRoss@mail.sdsu.edu
- Presenters
Veronica Dyer, San Diego State University, veronicadyer22@gmail.com
Zachary Woodward, San Diego State University, znwoodward@gmail.com
Lisa Lamb, San Diego State University, Lisa.Lamb@sdsu.edu
Need
Hosting Aztec Science Camp is important because we are able to provide a common experience for our Interns, all undergraduate science majors, to explore their fitness for becoming teachers, by engaging with students in an informal learning setting. The Interns benefit because they have this experience with young people, the campers benefit because they get to explore and engage in thoughtfully designed science experiences, and our lead teachers (credentialed multiple subject (elementary) teachers) benefit because they have opportunities to teach science in an open and informal setting.
Goals
a) The goals are to inspire the campers’ passion to continue to learn more mathematics and science, advance opportunities early in the campers’ school years to become energized about attending SDSU, and
primarily to provide the possibility for SDSU’s STEM majors and premajors to work with young people and initiate their enthusiasm for teaching as a career.
b) The key activities to meet our 3rd goal include extended training opportunities both before camp begins and every day after camp ends. The Interns debrief about their experiences and share what they notice about the campers’ thinking about science.
Approach
We are working to achieve our goals through careful screening and selection of our Interns, providing thoughtful training experiences for the Interns so that they feel well prepared to work with the campers, and hosting a science camp on SDSU’s campus to encourage many students to apply. Project PIs Ross, Lamb, and Pullman are centrally involved in this effort.
Outcomes
Although we have already hosted Aztec Science Camp one time, we hope that key outcomes include that our Interns become inspired to become science teachers. We will continue to track the trajectory of our Interns.
Broader Impacts
Broader impacts include inspiring well-qualified science majors to become effective science teachers. As stated above, the campers, the lead teachers, and the interns are all impacted by the project. The poster will be shared at the Noyce conference where we hope that other Noyce projects will be able to benefit from what we have learned about hosting a science camp on our college campus.
