Earlier this month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Augustana with the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grant, providing $1.2 million dollars of funding for STEM teaching scholarships until 2029. This is the second time the college has received a Robert Noyce award.
At Augustana, this grant is called the Promoting Opportunities in STEM Teaching (POST) scholarship program and is available to students during their junior or senior years. The POST program aims to prepare undergraduates for secondary teaching in STEM fields by placing students in local, high-needs school districts.
Education Professor and Department Chair Mike Egan said the college first received the NSF’s Robert Noyce grant in late 2019, totaling a little over $1 million. Egan is one of the four faculty members who served as principal investigators for the grant.
Egan said the grant helps attract future math or science teachers through the program’s funding. According to the college’s website, POST scholarships vary from $10,000 to $30,000 per year, with the average yearly scholarship award of $20,000.
“Not only do students get a lot of money, they actually get some enhanced professional preparation,” Egan said. “We believe that they go out into the world even more prepared to be successful teachers.”
Following graduation, Egan said POST scholars must commit to teaching math or science for four years in high-needs school districts. Professor of Education Michael Schroeder said the program partners students with nearby school districts, such as Rock Island, Davenport and United Township.
Schroeder said the program helps combat the nationwide teacher shortage and emphasized the need for STEM teachers, particularly within the Quad Cities community.
“Probably a majority of the high schools in the Quad Cities are high-needs and those are the districts that are partnering with us in this effort,” Schroeder said.
Senior Sarah Marshall is a member of the POST program and said she is currently student teaching at Davenport North High School. Marshall is majoring in secondary math education.
“I was worried going into a school that was high-needs. I didn’t know if I could handle it or if it was right for me,” Marshall said. “But building the relationships with the kids who need it the most is like the most heartwarming thing.”
Students in the program are also required to engage in a research project over the summer with an Augustana STEM faculty member.
“They receive a very rich supplementary learning experience,” Egan said. “Many of them travel and do professional conferences.”
Last summer, Marshall said she conducted a summer research project with three other students and presented their work at a national conference in St. Louis. Marshall said her project consisted of taking a four-variable differential equations model that represented social media addiction and turning it into a board game for students to see mathematical modeling.
“It gave me the opportunity to learn how to take something complicated that students are going to be like, ‘Ew. This is so disgusting, I don’t wanna do that.’, and turn it into something fun that they can understand,” Marshall said.
