Page 101 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Systematic Support for STEM Pre-Service Teachers

Counseling activity requires project participants to enroll in a UWA 102 career exploration class during
the second academic term where they receive aptitude testing, an interest inventory, interview skills
training, and other related career guidance activities. The career counselor is required to meet with
project participants once per academic term through graduation to collaborate on the development of an
individual career exploration portfolio. The guided career exploration and intensive career counseling
provided in the Career Counseling activity are intended to cultivate undergraduate STEM students to
ensure preparation for careers in STEM fields including STEM education.

Professional Enrichment Trips and Access to STEM Professionals

The learning activities of professional enrichment trips and access to STEM professionals in Project
Engage are good activities that can help STEM pre-service teachers to experience real world STEM
applications and to gain insights into STEM careers. In Project Engage, professional enrichment trips
augment the STEM college classroom experience with real world STEM practice by providing expo-
sure to STEM professionals in their work environment. Pre-service teachers in Project Engage have
interacted with STEM professionals such as NASA scientists and other related NASA careers with trips
to the Marshall Spaceflight Center; environmental scientists, engineers, and educators at the Alabama
Nature Center; and biologists and biotech engineers at the Hudson Alpha Biotech Center. Interactions
with STEM professionals in the work setting provide a deeper understanding of STEM applications that
pre-service teachers can take with them into their future classrooms.
Project Engage has also afforded project participants with the opportunity to engage with STEM
professional speakers. Project participants have listened to a NASA project director discuss the future of
space flight; engaged in an interactive science show; and built boomerangs along with a world champion
boomerang thrower. The most significant occasion for Project Engage participants was the lectures by a
former U. S. Surgeon General who provided inspiration as well as realistic advice for success in STEM
careers. On-going professional development for pre-service teachers in the form of enrichment trips to
STEM industries as well as access to real-life practitioners working in STEM-related fields reinforces
the significance of STEM education at the K-12 level.

UWA STEM 101 Course

In Project Engage, the UWA STEM 101 course was designed and implemented to help project partici-
pants build STEM knowledge and skills. Project Engage faculty and staff developed a curriculum and
syllabus to be used with the UWA STEM 101 course. The specialized curriculum requires STEM UWA
101 students to investigate a STEM topic of their choosing as part of class assignments facilitated by
their STEM UWA 101 professor. One example is the investigation of various topics through the “How
Does It Work?” exercise. In this activity, which promotes understanding of the scientific method, students
engaged in their own research throughout the semester, seeking answers to their questions, conferring
with experts in the subject (faculty members, researchers, mechanics, engineers, scientists, etc.), and
sharing their discoveries with fellow classmates. Supported by Engage mentors, STEM faculty, and a
Career Counselor, in-class activities offer participants opportunities for directed study into personal
areas of interest. The UWA STEM 101 course offered a new way to improve STEM pre-service teach-
ers’ STEM knowledge and skills.

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