One of the most significant outcomes of our theme related specifically to teaching is the Project WET (https://www.projectwet.org/) certification the interns receive.  This allows the participants to have access to a significant amount of meaningful classroom ready explorations.  We hear from our alumni (like Bailey in the video) who use these resources in the classroom.  We also have multiple alums who have also completed trainer certification so they can offer PD with the WISE team to spread the word on water topics in STEM classrooms.

This is such a great project. Thanks for sharing. It was great to hear that it is encouraging participants to become certified teachers. Is participation open to students who are not yet considering teaching as a career? Have you seen any students decide to become a STEM educator as a result of the program?

The WISE Summer Internship is indeed open to those not yet considering teaching as a career.  Because we have a small group each year (10-12 students), we consider academic performance and faculty recommendations to help in the selection process, but we welcome any STEM major. 

We do tend to attract those who are already interested in teaching, but have successfully "converted" others through the years!  Taylor Conner, featured in the video, is an example of one of those who was "resisting" the call to become a teacher, but as she states, the summer experience made a real difference in her thinking.  A key, though, is that we establish strong relationships during the intensive 3-week experiences and we keep in touch after that summer.  Doing so gives us the opportunity to have further conversations as the students develop and change their thinking through the years of their undergraduate program, and because we have a graduate-level program for initial licensure (MAT), it's really never too late.

Another aspect is that among those already interested in teaching, the experience can help solidify that choice.  Some become fans of middle schoolers through our time in classrooms at that level and end up adding that grade band to their primary certification at the high school level.

Finally, for those who aren't interested in teaching and don't become so, we maintain that part of our intent is to help all of them become more aware of K-12 education and education issues in general, including diversity, the demands of teaching, etc. As a result, we hope they'll become more informed citizens/voters, parents, and advocates.

Thank you for your questions!  We’re happy to explain some of these points that couldn’t possibly fit into our 3min video.

• That point on the last slide about the number of STEM educators:  It's actually our growth in terms of STEM educators we've produced--the number of certified 9-12 public school teachers graduating from our programs--across the years.  As for STEM faculty members involved:  Each summer we have 5 working with WISE out of 60+ across all the STEM departments, so about 8% of the total STEM faculty.  (There are 2 education faculty members with STEM teaching background involved each year.)  We usually have a consistent crew for 2-3 years at a time, and overall have involved 8 individual STEM faculty across the years we've had WISE in operation.
• Interdisciplinary nature of WET: The Project WET Educator certification workshop highlights the interdisciplinary features and flexibility of the WET curriculum, and the participating interns have to consider connections to other fields as they work with individual activities during that day--especially when they're doing a practice facilitation of one activity.  And although we haven't engaged humanities, arts, and or social sciences faculty yet...you've now given us that idea as an added feature for the future!
• Planning the internship: The faculty members in STEM and in education work closely together each year in preparation for the three-week experience through meetings and email exchanges.  That collaboration is especially important in terms of setting up the daily schedule, which has to account for various trips for field work for each content group (such as water sampling), the classroom experience (four full days), and the field explorations for the entire group (wastewater treatment plant, rocky shoals spider lilies at Landsford Canal, etc.).  Our lunch on most days of the internship is done all together in one private room, and includes the faculty, so that gives us the opportunity to stay abreast of each other's work throughout.
• Institutional Influence: Beth Costner is essential, as the internship was originally her idea, and we find that an administrator is needed for negotiating the special needs of our internship with student housing, dining services, facilities, and the like. And although we don’t have any formal mechanisms for using what we’ve learned from the internship in other aspects of the institution’s work, it does happen anyway:  Project WET (and Project Learning Tree) are making their way into the program for our early childhood and elementary teachers, and WET was incorporated as part of a research/service project in South America in recent years.  Further, our interns become part of an ongoing volunteer group that helps with recruitment events for future STEM and STEM education majors.

I will add to the institutional Influence part as well...The STEM educators involved in this project have been involved in considering how to offer multiple pathways for STEM certification.  So it would be inappropriate to say these changes have occurred because of WISE, I do think it is appropriate to say that our work to recruit new teachers has definitely informed our work in reconsideration of secondary education pathways.  We have also been able to use some foundation fundraising to include a small number of middle STEM majors and those experiences built some bridges for faculty in various programs. Finally, our students have been trailblazers in what is now common practice for secondary majors in all disciplines to expand certification in their discipline to the middle grades.

That could be very powerful and help us put the A in STEAM. We actually used students from the art and design department at our institution to help us come up with our WISE logo that appears in the video--which is an abstract design of many math and science symbols. However that was many years ago, and it would be great to get some involvement from the arts again!

Kristen-I'm glad you found our information useful. We have learned that having STEM faculty involved is very valuable as they are on the lookout for potential candidates in their courses. This helps with not only recruitment to the project but also the teacher education program. The project provides lots of opportunities for STEM and teacher education faculty to interact with each other and the students as there are common book talks, field trips and many meals together during the three weeks. Do you have any ideas how you might incorporate something like this at your institution? I would like to hear your ideas!

Structurally at our University we have education faculty embedded completely in the STEM Departments and this is helpful.  They teach content courses and this helps them with connections to students and other faculty as well. Our university also has a rich history as a teacher's college so I was surprised at how respected I was when I came.  I had not seen that in the past.  All of these creates a nice foundation, but we have also intentionally involved STEM faculty in the internship research aspects and then pulled them into other activities that allowed for connections and mutual recognition of work.

You all are very fortunate. This program is a great way of taking advantage of the respect between the disciplines!

For Project WET, step 1 is to become a WET educator, which means you get a copy of the curriculum and the rights to use all the activities with your own students or with groups for which you do educational programs directly.  That's a one-day workshop.  There may be a cost based on the curriculum (a book), which would be about $30 + anything like lunch or snacks that might be part of the day.

Step 2 is facilitator training, which means that you can then conduct workshops through which people become a WET educator (as in Step 1 above).  I'm not sure, but I think that would be more than a day.  In SC, we benefited from a collaborative effort among our state coordinators for Projects WET, WILD, and Learning Tree and had a 2.5 day training to become facilitators for all three.

For both levels, and for the other projects, there are often grants that can greatly reduce or eliminate workshop costs, so it varies.  Check out more info at https://www.projectwet.org/, where you can find upcoming workshops by location and get details on the online trainings that have come about due to the pandemic.

What great resources and the PD experience sounds lovely.  I have downloaded your article and added link to our water resources so we have in the future.  Thanks.

Thanks, we enjoy working with the students and learning together.

There have been many comments on the A in STEAM and Project WET and just realized I am not sure we have made the connection explicitly that Project WET certainly works in all STEM areas but there are a number of connections to disciplines outside of STEM. It is truly interdisciplinary. One of our favorite memories was the Biology faculty member who wrote a lovely poem about water the first summer we hosted the training.  Just want to get that project's website back in the mix in case others missed that earlier.  https://www.projectwet.org/