Hi, I'm John Pecore, Associate Professor and Askew Institute Research Fellow at the University of West Florida.  My colleague Dr. Demetrikopoulos and I are facilitating this conversation about our video STEM Teaching Through Community.  Our NSF Robert F. Noyce funded project provides internships for students interested in pursuing STEM teaching degrees and undergraduate scholarships during students' junior and senior years with a commitment to completing the program and teaching in a high needs school district after graduation.  Our goal is to recruit highly qualified STEM majors and graduate middle and high school STEM teachers that are debt free and committed to teaching.  It takes a community to prepare a teacher. This video presents our community partnerships which are vital to the recruitment and development of future STEM teachers.  We look forward to hearing and answering your questions about community partnerships for recruiting and developing STEM teachers.

Professor Pecore and Dr. Demetrikopoulos,

This is a great program. My degrees are in electrical engineering and I currently teach information technology. Since high school, I was always engaged in some form of teaching, but I never considered it as a career until about six years ago. If I had been involved in a program such as this in high school, I probably would have made different choices and entered teaching much earlier. I especially like the aspect of involving several community partners to create an village that makes the students feel supported in the idea of entering the teaching profession.

Question: What are you thoughts on implementing such a program at the community college level? I've been at Florida State College at Jacksonville for only two years. I've been thinking about ways to develop joint projects between our School of Information Technology and our School of Education.

I love your video and your program looks amazing! It was inspiring to see the dedication and commitment of the interns in the video vignettes. They will bring a wonderful energy to STEM classrooms. How far along are you in the project? Do you have plans to be able to sustain this work after the grant funding ends?

Hi Kristen, 

Thanks for your interest in our project.  

This video is at the end of Year 2 of this specific Noyce Award, and Year 3 of the project.  A number of steps have been made to institutionalize the project including approval of developed courses and approval of BA options for STEM majors that allows them to obtain both a BA in a STEM field and Education within 4 years of study.   This represents a large collaborative effort that has brought together the STEM and Education programs across campus.  

Furthermore, this project has strengthened relationships between the partner organizations that will facilitate ongoing collaboration.  

I love the emphasis on the community component; great video! Here in Hillsborough County, we work hard to develop those relationships but we are severely understaffed and underfunded. We are making connections with local businesses and community members, but we see a start difference in support from community to community. The Noyce program has provided much-needed funding for our USF Master of Arts in Teaching STEM scholars to work in our high needs schools. I am curious to know what your most impactful recruitment approach is for bringing STEM students to the field of teaching.

I'm impressed at the way you've drawn from local resources to develop a program that meets your local needs! Have you gained that others can learn from in terms of how to build up that kind of collaboration across organizations which may have some differences in approaches/priorities?

Thank you for sharing your project through this video!  I really appreciated hearing about, and seeing, some of the great work that you are doing to support the development of high quality STEM teachers.  It sounds like a great partnership with high schools and departments in your college.  I am curious about the STEM mentors that you mentioned in your project description and in one of your comments above.  Are the mentors practicing teachers?  What kinds of experiences do the Scholars and Mentors engage in? Can you say more about what you meant above about "having a quality STEM mentor early in the program seems most impactful?"

Got my vote! What an amazing program, thank you for all you do for our community! 

Thanks Chasidy!

Hi John, great video. It is wonderful to see what fellow Noyce program are up to!

super project. wish we had one like it.

Thanks Pat, 

There are several features of this Noyce project that would be useful to replicate including making the institutional commitments to develop the BA STEM tracks collaboratively with the Education program, and the development of teaching opportunities with their partners for underclassmen (including dual enrolled students).   Since this project can trace its original roots to Atlanta within your supportive umbrella where John and I first began to collaborate two decades ago, it would be great to develop a project like this there.  

Hi Melissa and John, 

Wonderful project! As someone who teaches Oceanography, I think it's vital to incorporate hands-on activities and field labs. It makes such a huge difference in the way students learn and how much they retain. Thanks for all you do in preparing STEM teachers of the future. 

I also really like the way you filmed your video with the aerial shots. 

Keep up the great work!