- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2151059
- First Name Paul
- Last Name Fix
- Institution Northern Illinois University
- Role/Position Co-PI
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs
- Topics Partnerships for Success (High-need schools/informal institutions/industry/community)
- Additional Presenter(s)
Anthony Dabe (z1926028@students.niu.edu) and Kevin Vivaldo (z1854511@students.niu.edu)
Goals
Participants will learn about how our week-long teaching camp, called STEPup, is structured, the challenges faced in creating the experience, and the successes seen in recruiting new teacher candidates into the licensure program.
Evidence
We will be providing data collected from participant surveys and interviews. Data show the STEPup program significantly improves participant views on the teaching profession and positively impacts the likelihood they will pursue teaching as a career.
Proposal
Many STEM teacher preparation programs across the country are seeing declining enrollment. Recruitment often focuses on outreach, advertising, and financial incentives to attract new students; however, these methods are most effective if the recruit is already interested in teaching. What if a student is not sure teaching is the right career for them? There are very few meaningful opportunities for potentially interested students to try out teaching to help them make this decision. Our week-long Science Teaching Experience and Practice for Undergraduate Participants (STEPup) provides students undecided about becoming teachers real-world teaching experience in a local high-needs school. Hear from program faculty and students about how STEPup is structured, the challenges faced in creating the experience, and the successes seen in recruiting new teacher candidates into our secondary science licensure program.
