A couple of years ago, researchers on the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology saw a dire statistic. Of the new graduates from the colleges of education across the state, not one student had passed the Praxis certification exam in Physics.

While Georgia Tech by charter is not in the business of certifying teachers, it has a clear interest in the quality of science teaching in the state and the quality of undergraduates entering the university system. Now, through a new National Science Foundation (NSF) activity, Georgia Tech is integrating existing NSF-funded projects on campus that benefit science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, faculty and students at all levels who are interested in STEM teaching.

Georgia Tech is one of six institutions that received funding in fiscal year 2008 via Innovation Through Institutional Integration, or I3, an effort intended to link institutions' existing NSF-funded projects in STEM education and to leverage their collective strengths. The other five instiutions are Louisiana State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Washington, the University of Florida and Hawaii's Kapiolani Community College.

As a cross-divisional activity in NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources, I3 promotes increased collaboration within and between institutions and addresses important directorate initiatives: broader participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM, critical educational junctures, the integration of research and education, a globally engaged workforce and research and assessment.

At Georgia Tech, plenty of students go into teaching, as per Donna Llewellyn, director of the institution's Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

"Our students are bright, and those with an interest in teaching figure out what they need to do," says Llewellyn. "We want to create pathways so they're well prepared when they leave Tech. We also want to get it into the mindset on campus that this isn't a bad thing to do".

Through its I3 project, Tech to Teaching, Georgia Tech is bringing together resources that enable and encourage undergraduate and graduate students to effectively pursue careers in K-12 or college teaching. Through a Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship award to Georgia Tech in partnership with Kennesaw State University, undergraduates receive stipends while working towards their master's degree in teaching. Through the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12), graduate students are receiving education in pedagogy and then experience in local K-12 classrooms. Meanwhile, I3 is strengthening ties between Georgia Tech and partner institutions of higher education, such as Spelman and Georgia Perimeter College, where, through I3, Georgia Tech graduate students will serve as instructors in college classrooms.

"Since most of our undergrads are not taught by grad students, a number of graduate students don't get experience teaching at Georgia Tech," says Llewellyn".

Through I3, from the undergraduate to the doctoral level, many NSF-funded programs and projects offer students resources for having teaching experiences and seeing where their needs are in preparing them for academic careers--whether at a small university, a liberal arts college or a two-year college.

A strategic approach at LSU
To build a successful model of integration in the STEM disciplines, the I3 project at Louisiana State University will assist students in their professional development towards advanced degrees, create an interdisciplinary curriculum in materials engineering and science, and develop a hierarchical mentoring ladder system involving faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students and high school teachers and students. Of 50 ongoing awards in these areas, most are funded by NSF. The projects are currently supporting more than 50 doctoral students, 300 undergraduates, hundreds of school teachers and thousands of K-12 students. The university's Office of Strategic Initiatives is integrating projects under its leadership and that of the Gordon A. Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Mathematical Literacy.

"We're excited about bringing these programs under one umbrella, said Isiah Warner, vice chancellor for Lousiana State's Office of Strategic Initiatives. "A lot of our programs are bringing underrepresented people into STEM".

Preparing future teachers at UC Boulder
The University of Colorado at Boulder's I3 project picks up on recommendations made in the influential report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, to identify three broad goals: transforming STEM education, building a community of education research within the science departments and developing future educators. Toward that end, the university is using I3 funding to build a Center for STEM Education Research and Transformation that integrates education projects across the campus. The center links more than eight traditional departments in three colleges and schools, including the schools of education and engineering and the departments of life sciences, mathematics and physical sciences. While each department retains its identity, the center provides an infrastructure for bringing together key ideas and sharing strategies and results.

"We're helping transform the identity of physics and STEM professors to identify themselves as recruiters and preparers of K-12 teachers," says Noah Finkelstein, professor of physics.

Drawing on NSF-funded projects, including those funded through the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement program, the university is performing a biology concept inventory and developing new tools in physics, biology and chemistry education, transforming classes and building a foundation with which to evaluate the results of the new initiatives.

Through the NSF Noyce; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teacher Preparation; and Teacher Professional Continuum programs, the faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering are partnering with faculty in the School of Education to recruit, prepare and support the next generation of STEM teachers. Meanwhile, each of these efforts is supported by more fundamental research in education through NSF Research and Assessment on Education in Science and Engineering, and CAREER awards.

"When we talk about our identity as a research institution, we want to include that in research-based education," says Valerie Otero, associate professor of science education.

"Traditionally, science departments have been silos," adds Finkelstein. "This way education is housed in each of the departments and interdisciplinary work is supported across campus".


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