- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2050638
- First Name Tina
- Last Name Bell
- Registration Noyce Scholar/Teaching Fellow/Master Teacher
- Discipline STEM Education (general)
- Role Principal Investigator (PI)
- Presenters
Merold Saffa, Anthony Vu, Tina Bell and Padmanabhan Seshaiyer
Approach
In this work, we describe the engagement of Noyce scholars through a virtual professional learning institute called MOST: Mason Outreach for STEM Teachers that was offered to 23 in-service teachers from grades 6-12 selected from four different school districts in Northern Virginia. MOST was created and taught by one of the Co-PIs (Dr. Seshaiyer) of the Noyce grant to help immerse these in-service teacher participants in instructional strategies, technology tools and educational frameworks to enhance their pedagogical practices for culturally responsive instruction in STEM and enhance their content knowledge in grade-relevant STEM subjects. The participants also use concepts learnt from the MOST institute in their own classrooms, designed STEM curricula and STEM-lab activities with integrated lesson plans. This work describes the opportunity this institute provided for enhancing STEM learning for two Noyce Scholars who were able to participate in the sessions working closely with the in-service teachers and will continuing to work with these teachers as they prepare to work in school teams to engage participants in the FOCUS (Females of Color and those Underrepresented in STEM) program to be held at GMU in Summer 2024. The Noyce Scholars will also have the opportunity to participate in a follow-up lesson study that the teachers will engage in their own respective classrooms.
