- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1557254
- First Name Kristine
- Last Name Callan
- Discipline N/A
- Co-PI(s)
Renee Falconer, Colorado School of Mines, rfalcone@mines.edu
Christy McConnell Moroye, University of Northern Colorado, christine.moroye@unco.edu
Wendy Adams, University of Northern Colorado and Colorado School of Mines, wendy.adams@unco.edu
Robert Reinsvold, University of Northern Colorado, Robert.Reinsvold@unco.edu - Presenters
Wendy Adams, University of Northern Colorado and Colorado School of Mines, wendy.adams@unco.edu
Stephanie Fanselow, University of Northern Colorado and Colorado School of Mines, sfanselow@mines.edu
Need
TEAM-UP helps fulfill the need for more highly-qualified science and mathematics teachers by providing a streamlined pathway to licensure for students from a small, public, STEM-focused university, where no such pathway existed previously.
Goals
TEAM-UP’s goals are to recruit and retain more highly-qualified mathematics and science teachers from a previously untapped pool of students and to elevate the status of the teaching profession among students and faculty at the Colorado School of Mines.
Approach
TEAM-UP is a partnership between Colorado School of Mines and University of Northern Colorado (UNC). This unique partnership plays on each institution’s strengths to produce highly-qualified science and mathematics teachers: Mines prepares students with a strong understanding of STEM subjects, and UNC provides the coursework in education and pedagogy necessary to become a secondary science or mathematics teacher in Colorado. In addition, TEAM-UP’s Noyce Program provides Internships and Scholarships to recruit and retain teacher candidates, and Noyce project personnel have given several talks and workshops about the myths and realities of the teaching profession to Mines students and faculty.
Outcomes
The number of students taking TEAM-UP classes has grown each semester since the program began in the fall of 2015, and we?ve had a total of 43 students take coursework thus far. Of those 43 students, nine were Noyce Interns (five in the fall of 2016, four in the spring of 2017). We also secured in-kind funding for the Noyce Internship Program from Mines Financial Aid for students who also qualify for Federal Work Study. We awarded three semesters of Noyce Scholarships (one in the fall, two in the spring), and have our application process solidified and a strong pool of students in the program’s pipeline.
We have determined a set of recruiting practices that students find effective: sending targeted emails at pertinent times during the year, posting fliers around campus, sending student ambassadors to advertise at the beginning of classes, partnering with existing admissions events, and correcting negative rhetoric about the teaching profession with facts.
Broader Impacts
TEAM-UP will: increase the number of highly-qualified secondary math and science teachers entering the workforce who are prepared to teach in high-needs schools, elevate the status of the teaching profession locally by disproving negative rhetoric, and provide a model for how STEM-focused and education-focused entities can collaborate to produce secondary math and science teachers. In addition, by providing pathways by which more highly-qualified science and mathematics teachers enter the profession, more secondary students will: have positive experiences with STEM, be more likely to develop a STEM identity, and will persist in STEM disciplines.
