- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2049983
- First Name Salvatore
- Last Name Garofalo
- Institution Queens College, City University of New York
- Role/Position Co-PI
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Physics
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs
- Topics Lessons learned from developing/implementing a Track 1 project / Track 2 project / Track 3 project / or Track 4 Research project, Supporting New Teachers/Induction
- Additional Presenter(s)
Christopher Chow – CHRISTOPHER.CHOW23@qmail.cuny.edu; Saleem Singh – SALEEM.SINGH84@qmail.cuny.edu
Goals
Participants will learn: 1.How two courses in educational technology impacted Noyce candidates during their teacher preparation program. 2.About the benefits of including two educational technology courses including the ability to cover a variety of topics in depth. 3.About the new technologies being presented and how they can be used in science classrooms.
Evidence
A technology use survey was given to all Noyce participants before and after each of the educational technology courses to gauge their familiarity and comfort with different technologies and databases. Throughout the program, Noyce candidates demonstrated an increase in their knowledge of technologies such as tablets and SmartBoards as well as new technologies such as drones, augmented/virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Candidates also expressed an increase in familiarity and use of large datasets from NASA, NOAA, and GLOBE. Noyce candidates were also asked to evaluate their experiences at the end of each course. Their feedback was generally positive and felt that the inclusion of two technology courses during the science education program was beneficial for their overall preparation. Additionally, candidates were evaluated on their proper use of educational technology during seminars and workshops.
Proposal
The Noyce SciTech TEAMS Program at Queens College aims to prepare science educators to teach in a variety of modalities such as in-person, remote, and hybrid. To accomplish this goal, Noyce candidates participate in two educational technology courses throughout their teacher preparation program. The first course occurs during their first semester of the program and focuses on using technological tools, such as smartphones, to collect data. The second course, which typically occurs during their last semester, focuses on educational technology theory. Throughout both courses, candidates are exposed to a variety of technological tools with an emphasis on cutting-edge technology such as drones, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. Candidates complete a Technology Use survey before and after each of the educational technology courses to measure their familiarity with different technological tools and databases. The results have suggested that Noyce candidates are more familiar with and comfortable using these different tools as a result of these courses. Additionally, Noyce candidates provide verbal feedback on each of the courses and have demonstrated that they believed each course was beneficial towards their use of educational technology in the classroom. The opportunity to operate drones, create original augmented reality experiences, and question the cognitive abilities of artificial intelligence have been some of the highlights during the SciTech TEAMS Program.
