great idea about integrating math and science. does that integration happen in pre-service training of teachers? do the high-school students and undergraduate teachers in training work together on the dunes?

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to our video. We are the PIs and Evaluators of the University of West Florida (UWF)-Teach program which prepares STEM majors to be secondary school STEM teachers in high needs school districts. Our program receives funding by the Robert Noyce Teacher Preparation Program. One summer before graduation, our students who receive scholarships (Noyce Scholars) engage in a research project with a STEM faculty to turn their research engagement into a citizen science classroom lesson under the guidance of a high school teacher and the mentorship of an alumni Noyce Scholar who would be at least a first-year teacher. This video presents the outcome of an interdisciplinary collaboration between two Noyce Scholars - one Math Teaching and one Environmental Science Teaching - on this professional development activity. Their final product can be found at the bottom of this page under the heading Analyzing Sand Dunes Utilizing the Pythagorean Theorem and Estimating Vegetation Percentages. Some questions to frame discussion on our video are:

• What has been your experience conducting interdisciplinary collaborations for pre-service teachers, teachers, university students, or secondary (middle or high) school students?
• What are some challenges you have experienced teaching or research with citizen science orientations or outcomes? How have you addressed or overcome some of these challenges?
• What are some of the ways we can make STEM more accessible for all students?

"... when you talk about scientists, mathematicians,... even those big words will throw people because 'I can never do that'..." This is at the crux of why some, especially underrepresented minorities, do not embrace the STEM fields. Dr. Hailee Hawkins could not have said it any better. This is a cool and fantastic project. Kudos to the team! I voted!! 

By the way, I like Dr. Kwame's attire... proudly African!

Hi Kwame, great video and project! Thanks for your discussion question about challenges of research with citizen science orientations or outcomes. One thing that has come up for us is in investigating youth activism as an outcome, and understanding what exactly science activism looks like. What were some of the outcomes you investigated or that emerged from your project?

Thanks for checking out our video on community science investigations for social justice! 

Best regards,

Sarah

Great initiative. Integrating science and mathematics and connecting the dots with real life application. Congrats to the team.

Great project!  I especially loved the teacher saying that this project gives her students an ability to apply what they learn in class in the real world, to understand WHY they are learning things in class in a concrete way.  My questions for you: 1) How have you tied the high school curriculum into your program and 2) how were you able to help teachers understand the value of doing projects that span disciplines when they are so siloed at the high school level?  As a scientist, I personally understand that science, math, and literacy are all highly interdependent in the sciences, but I've found it complicated to pass that along to students through teachers given the siloing they experience at their schools.  For that matter, I had a hard time convincing even the upper division college students I taught that you need all three together to be a successful scientist!

Nice project and video! What are the metrics you measure in your evaluation plan? Do you know to what extent the new teachers use the experience in this project and/or maintain/stream the citizen science practices in their teaching? Does your program gather data/information on how the experiences transformed (enhanced?) their STEM and interdisciplinary concept understandings?

Fascinating project! Those rubrics for assessment made my heart sing. How do you support teachers so they can make their own similar rubrics? 

Thanks Renae. We thought people would have questions about some of the mechanics of the classroom lesson itself hence why we sought to include the link to them! Our PI John Pecore would be best poised to answer this question. To take a stab at your question, for our Noyce Scholars, I know that they take a course that helps them develop such rubrics on their own. We also work with teachers already using similar models as mentors for our Noyce Scholars. I know that the cooperating teachers we work with between our two school districts have to take some professional development to serve as cooperating/supervising teachers. I believe we go over some of this assessment with them. I am not entirely sure about this part. I am sure though that our Noyce Scholars are prepared to teach with such rubrics by the time they graduate.
Sincerely,
Kwame

I think this is a great project and video, emphasizing both the opportunities at UWF and the broader opportunities to engage a greater proportion of the public in science and science literacy.  From my unbiased position (as a departmental colleague of Kwame and Phillip), this is the best project of this cycle :)

You had me at sand dunes and Pythagorean Theorem! That is so nerdy. Just the thing to help kids see the math and science around them. The conservation angle is very important. There are so many issues all around us - especially with environmental justice. Having students investigate them empowers them with the knowledge that they can do something about the problems. 

Dr. Owusu-Daaku, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the University of West Florida!  We had our first cohort of scholars this year and have had the interact with teachers and elementary/middle/high school students.  Next year we are trying to give them more opportunities to learn interactive methods to develop lessons.  Your video makes me even more excited about what we can accomplish in the future.  How do you get the "buy-in" from other faculty and in-service teachers to use more "creative" lessons?

Hi Ayanna,

Thanks so much for checking out our video. Congratulations on your Noyce grant funding and your first cohort of Noyce scholars! I also really enjoyed your video and your project's acronym (I am a sucker for witty acronyms!). The buy-in was really built by leaning in to in-service teachers and faculty who already employed "creative" lessons in their pedagogy to serve as brand ambassadors and mentors! They have been most helpful in building our program over time to what it is now. The project is this video is the a product of five years worth of implementation and adjusting as we moved on. I took a while to get buy-in even among faculty and faculty are often unsure of expectations but once they can see successful examples, are usually more open. Also providing funding incentives to both faculty and in-service teachers is also very helpful. To give you a sense of how we have progressed over time, please find links to our past STEMforALL video show cases:

2019 video: https://stemforall2019.videohall.com/presentati...
2020 video: https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentati...
2021 video: https://multiplex.videohall.com/presentations/2...

Wishing you nothing but the best as you seek to be REGAL!

Sincerely,
Kwame

Great initiative. Students are inspired through these experiences. I'm interested to learn about any outcomes re: percentage of participants who chose to pursue STEM majors after high school graduation.