- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1660690
- First Name Tiffany-Rose
- Last Name Sikorski
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline Chemistry, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, STEM Education (general)
- Role Principal Investigator (PI)
- Presenters
Tiffany-Rose Sikorski, The George Washington University
Need
This project addresses the critical need for new math and science teachers who can effectively support learners in high-needs schools, with a focus on the DC-metro region.
Research Questions
As our project moves toward completion, we reflect on successes, challenges, and lessons learned.
Approach
Our Track 1 project builds on an earlier Noyce capacity building project, which established a foundation for collaboration among multiple departments to recruit and prepare future STEM teachers. At GW, STEM majors learn about teaching through exploratory courses, academic advising meetings, undergraduate teaching positions, and service-learning opportunities focused on high-need populations. Master Teachers, who are clinical faculty, provide individualized academic advising to first- and second-year students, encouraging them to apply for admission into the Noyce Scholars program. Scholars develop and implement innovative project-based learning units in a range of math and science content areas while working towards their licensure requirements. Some scholars also complete internships with Master Teachers to gain experience in lesson planning and curriculum design. In addition to scholarship support during their junior and senior years, Scholars receive continual, individualized mentoring while fulfilling their academic and teaching requirements, including support to apply for licensure, apply and interview for jobs, and gather classroom materials for their first teaching position.
Outcomes
To date, the project has recruited and enrolled 22 Noyce Scholars. Ninety percent (90%) of these scholars are currently on track to fulfill their academic and teaching requirements. Alumni are also starting to reach back out to us to share recognition they are receiving for their success teaching in high-need school districts (e.g., new teacher of the year awards). We partially attribute our scholars’ success to an ongoing, individualized, relationship-centered mentoring approach that we have refined over the course of the project.
Broader Impacts
GW Noyce is contributing to the growing network of Noyce Scholarship projects responding to the need for excellent math and science teachers in high-need US schools.
