What is UWA-Teach?
UWA-TEACH is a $3 million grant awarded by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education as part of the STEM Major Teacher Recruitment Initiative. The purpose of the grant is to address the Alabama teacher shortage in the areas of math and science.
UWA-TEACH is a collaborative effort between the College of Education and the College of Natural Science and Mathematics that offers a compact and flexible route to teacher certification. The UWA-TEACH program offers undergraduate students majoring in any math or science degree the opportunity to minor in STEM education. Students would graduate with their STEM degree and be eligible to earn their teaching license if they successfully pass EdTPA and the Praxis content exam. It gives students two career options upon graduation.
The program will also be offered to those who already hold a degree in math or science and seek the opportunity to earn a master’s degree and a teaching certificate. This alternative route to certification is a shortened pathway compared to the current Alternative-A teacher certification programs.
STEM teaching is FREE
Think teaching might be for you? Determine if a teaching career in STEM education is a good fit by enrolling in a one-credit hour “Step 1” course for free! Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors, complete the course with at least a C grade and qualify for a tuition rebate. Throughout the course, students will interact with K-12 students in a real classroom setting.
Curriculum
Undergraduate Degrees
This course allows students to explore teaching as a career. Following an introduction to the theory and practice behind excellent inquiry-based science and mathematics instruction, students teach lessons in elementary classrooms to obtain firsthand experience in planning and implementation.
This course offers students the opportunity to plan and teach inquiry-based science and mathematics lessons. Students will learn how to develop inquiry-based lessons and are required to teach these lessons to middle school students.
The goal of this course is for students to construct the model of knowing and learning that they will take with them into their classroom. This course focuses on issues of what it means to know and learn science and mathematics, and students develop a powerful toolkit of relevant approaches.
Students design and implement instructional activities informed by their own understandings of what it means to know and learn mathematics and science, and then evaluate the outcomes of those activities on the basis of student artifacts (i.e., what students say, do, or create). The course introduces ways to use curricula and technologies in classroom settings to build relationships among teachers and students. Students learn how content and pedagogy combine for effective teaching. Field experience required.
Students engage in explorations and lab activities designed to strengthen and expand their knowledge of secondary mathematics topics. Students collect data and explore a variety of situations that can be modeled using linear, exponential, polynomial, and trigonometric functions. Mathematic majors only
Research Methods simultaneously provides students specific techniques needed to address scientific questions and examples of how to provide this sort of training for students through individualized instruction. The course involves extensive laboratory work and scientific writing. Science majors only
Students develop an intellectually challenging project-based instructional unit that provides students with the experience of managing lessons and high school students outside a classroom, in a field setting. Integration of mathematics and science content, infusion of technology in representation, analysis, modeling, assessment, and contextualization of content with a focus on designing equitable learning environment are synthesized as students develop an intellectually challenging project-based instructional unit. Field experience is required.
The purpose of the STEM Teaching Internship course is to offer students a culminating experience that provides them with the tools needed for their first teaching position. In STEM Teaching, students are immersed in the expectations, processes, and rewards of teaching. They remain on the school campus a minimum of six hours per day and must complete the STEM Teaching Seminar (SED 430) concurrently.
*Mathematics majors
**Biology and General Science majors
Masters Degrees
*SED 530: Inquiry Application Lesson Design in STEM Teaching
*SED 532: Knowing & Learning
SED 533: Classroom Interactions
SED 534: Project-Based Instructions
SED 535: Science Research Methods
Eighteen (18) Hours of Approved Graduate Electives in Biology in conjunction with any of the above.
SE 500: Introduction to Special Education (If the course was completed prior to unconditional admission to Alt-A program, another approved diversity course is required.
*SED 530: Inquiry Application Lesson Design in STEM Teaching
*SED 532: Knowing & Learning
SED 533: Classroom Interactions
SED 534: Project-Based Instructions
SED 535: Science Research Methods
Twelve (12) Hours of Approved Graduate Electives in Science in conjunction with any of the above.
*SED 530: Inquiry Application Lesson Design in STEM Teaching
*SED 532: Knowing & Learning
SED 533: Classroom Interactions
SED 534: Project-Based Instructions
SED 536: Functions and Modeling
Eighteen (18) Hours of Approved Graduate Electives in Mathematics** in conjunction with any of the above.
SE 500: Introduction to Special Education (If the course was completed prior to unconditional admission to Alt-A program, another approved diversity course is required.
*NOTE: Must be taken first in order to satisfy pre-requisite requirements for other UWA-Teach Courses. The two green courses can be taken at the same time or with any other major-specific courses**. However, they must be completed prior to enrolling in any of the other UWA-Teach courses.
Contacts
More Information – email UWA-Teach@uwa.edu