Robert Sherwood, Ph.D. - US grants

This project is to design and develop a set of four video- based Scientists in Action episodes including a variety of hands-on activities that provide opportunities for students to work along with scientists (video-based) in using technology to solve environmental and human health problems. The video productions will be patterned after the Jasper series. The first tape will be a re-shooting of the Overturned Tanker episode. Topics of the other three tapes will be chosen with advice from students, teachers, the Internal Review Board and the National Advisory Committee. Software will be identified that can be linked to the video based materials.

This award provides funding for a 3-year standard award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site at Vanderbilt University, entitled, "Vanderbilt University Biomedical Engineering RET Site Project." The program will provide a four-week summer research experience for fourteen math and science teachers from the Nashville, TN, Metropolitan Public and Private Schools as well as from six neighboring counties.

The Indiana Noyce Science Scholars: Teachers for a New Decade project partners faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education at Indiana University-Bloomington (IUB) with Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation, North Lawrence Community Schools, Monroe County Community School Corporation, North Daviess Community Schools and Paoli Community Schools in support of developing sixty individuals to become middle grades and high school science teachers over the course of five years. The project provides for two pathways to produce the STEM teachers: 1) a discipline-specific B.S./M.S. program in biology, chemistry, physics, and geology, in which qualified science majors earn both a baccalaureate degree in a STEM discipline and a master's degree in education, as well as science teacher licensure and 2) the Transition to Teaching (T2T) program, which is a vehicle for graduate science majors and career changes who hold degrees in science and engineering fields to meet the requirements for science teacher licensure in Indiana.

The conceptual framework for this Teachers for a New Decade project is summarized by "Six Principles for Teacher Education," which have been developed over multiple years by IUB faculty and speak to Knowledge, Meaningful Experience, Personalized Learning, Community, Critical Reflection, and Growth. This program is NCATE approved. The project includes a Noyce Mentor Coordinator who serves as a resource to Noyce Scholar-Teachers during their first year. This individual complements the teacher mentors in the schools by connecting them with relevant IUB faculty, thus ensuring responsiveness to content-driven needs of the fledgling Noyce Teachers. In addition to face-to-face mentoring, the project will utilize the "PBS TeacherLine Peer Connection" online induction delivery platform, which embeds research briefs along with short video podcasts modeling research-based best practice instructional strategies, along with Twitter or other real-time social media applications that are adaptable to coaching.

The formative aspect of the evaluation will examine: the extent to which faculty and administrators make use of results and materials from prior NSF projects and the research literature on minority recruitment and supports; the effectiveness of "cohort" and mentoring in scholar/teachers' retention and completion; and institutional capacity building and changes needed to recruit and support cross-disciplinary students entering STEM education. The summative evaluation will focus on: how the scholar/teachers' content knowledge and prior experiences influence their instructional decision-making; which components of the preparation program have the greatest impact on induction experiences; how the supervision and mentoring components facilitated the transition from pre-service into teaching; and how these aspects of the project influenced teacher retention of the scholar/teachers.