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Mercy College was awarded a $1.4 million grant by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program for a six-year project. The project will prepare 14 in-service master math and science teachers to become Master Teacher Fellows and leaders in their high-need school districts — Elmsford, New Rochelle, Port Chester and Yonkers — with a particular focus on recruiting teachers from underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

The project aims to prepare these teachers to support their students’ achievement and interest in STEM and to lead other teachers in improving STEM teaching and learning. Fellows will engage in intensive professional development including graduate STEM pedagogy and education coursework, and faculty mentoring, while pledging to remain in a high-needs district for five years. They will gain expertise in student-centered learning tied to real-world STEM issues and participate in vertical professional learning communities that support instruction and leadership projects that will support STEM initiatives in their districts.

Project partners, Sarah Lawrence College’s Center for the Urban River at Beczak — an environmental education nonprofit — and New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, will contribute professional development and faculty expertise. Part of this project is a faculty focus on improving STEM pedagogy courses for teachers, which will involve the project partners, as well as STEM and Education faculty from Mercy College. Dr. Amanda M. Gunning is the director of the grant, which is supported by STEM faculty Drs. Renee Haskew-Layton and Marion Ben-Jacob, as well as Education faculty Drs. Meghan E. Marrero and Elena Nitecki. The director of this grant is also the co-director of the Mercy College Center for STEM Education. For more information about this project and the Center, please visit /stem-learning. An informational webinar for teachers who are interested in applying will be held on Oct. 10, at 8pm.