Columbus State University News
Growing Opportunity: UTeach Among New STEM Programs Addressing Teacher Shortage
April 20, 2012
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By Tim Turner
ince Richardson always thought he had a gift for teaching. In the Army, he taught
soldiers first-aid for over five years and loved it, but he was unsure if he wanted
to make teaching a career.
Until now.
Richardson recently found himself teaching again, this time as a Columbus State student
fulfilling a class assignment at St. Mary’s Elementary Magnet Academy in south Columbus.
There, he was earning hands-on experience as part of CSU’s UTeach program, a new initiative funded by CSU and a federal grant designed to produce more public
school teachers in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math — STEM,
for short.
Part of Richardson’s assignment was to execute a lesson plan in front of a class.
He had taught Combat Life Saver classes to soldiers with Fort Benning’s 3rd Infantry
Division, but would he be as eager to remain in the classroom after a day with kids?
“Without a doubt,” Richardson said. “If I had any questions about it, the whole UTeach
program makes me know for certain this is what I want to do. This is a great opportunity
for me.”
It’s also a great opportunity for Columbus State, UTeach Columbus and CSU’s other
new efforts to address the nation’s shortage of math and science teachers. Richardson’s
experience is evidence the program is preparing well the next generation of teachers.
“The way that the professors went over specifically what was needed, what we were
going to face, just the whole lesson program that they set up for us is great,” said
Richardson. “If we had any questions — my partner and I had never done this before
— this was a really nice guide for us to be able to teach without any problems.”
Columbus State exceeded its goal of attracting 24 students to the new program this
spring as 32 enrolled. This bodes well as CSU coordinates a number of initiatives
designed to recruit, train and retain high school teachers in STEM areas.
Last summer, CSU received a $1.4 million, four-and-ahalf year grant as part of the
U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top program to produce more STEM teachers
through UTeach Columbus, which is modeled after a successful University of Texas program.
CSU then received a $1.2 million award in September from the National Science Foundation’s
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, named after the famed computer chip inventor,
for a proposal called CRAFT-STEM, short for Columbus Region Academy for Future Teachers
of STEM, which aims to help Columbus State recruit, develop and graduate an increasing
number of high school STEM teachers over the next five years. Key CRAFTSTEM components
are:
- A STEM Honors summer camp for high school students across the state.
- A $4,500 summer internship for CSU freshmen and sophomores.
- A Teaching Connections Seminar that helps pre-service teachers address content in the high school curriculum.
- Scholarships for CSU juniors and seniors ranging from $10,000-$13,000.
- Scholarship recipients committing to teach two years in a high-need school district for each year they receive the scholarship
CRAFT-STEM’s main goal is to quadruple the number of high school math and science
teachers CSU graduates within five years, bringing the total to around 19 per year.
Most of CSU’s new UTeach students are coming out of either math or a science field.
Within the four years they’re in school, they’re also able to add a STEM teaching
certificate to go with their bachelor’s degree. That not only helps them in their
careers but addresses a nationwide need documented by statistics related to STEM teacher
shortages:
- Nationally, 23.9 percent of biology-life sciences teachers don’t have a major in that discipline, and 6.7 percent of biology-life sciences teachers aren’t certified in that area.
- 51.8 percent of chemistry teachers didn’t major in chemistry, and 17.3 percent aren’t certified in chemistry.
- 66.8 percent of earth sciences teachers didn’t major in earth sciences, and 43.5 percent aren’t certified in this area.
- 42.3 percent of physics teachers didn’t major in physics, and 14.1 percent aren’t certified to teach in this area.
- 51.5 percent of physical science teachers didn't major in any physical science, and 21.6 percent aren't certified in any physical science.
- 56 biology teachers
- Nine chemistry teachers
- 23 earth and space science teachers
- One physics teacher
- 35 general science teachers
In Georgia that same year, there was a 10.1 percent science teacher attrition rate
in grades 6-12, resulting in almost 660 fewer science teachers — clearly more than
Georgia colleges and universities could fill with their graduates.
Over the spring semester, CSU students will observe, create lesson plans and teach
classes at elementary schools surrounding Columbus. They’re going out to do two classroom
observations with a teacher and then, with a partner, they’re going to teach three
lessons.
“This allows them to get their feet wet to see if they want to pursue teaching as
a career,” said Gail Sinkule, the program’s master teacher, who teaches its introductory
courses. “My job is to try to guide them, help them develop lessons and help them
practice those lessons before they go out.”
Sinkule is driven to help the students circumvent problems that she anticipates they
might initially encounter.
“The kids were awesome for us,” said Richardson’s partner, Sarah Hawk. “The instructors
taught us a lesson laid out the way they wanted us to teach it. So we got to see a
model of them teaching first. Then they let us try our hand at writing the lesson.”
Hawk likes the way UTeach puts CSU students in school classrooms earlier during their
studies.
“I felt that if I wasn’t in the classroom, I would get burned out by the time I actually
got to be in class with students,” she said. “I think we both had high hopes for the
outcome and we got a better reaction than we had planned. It was everything I was
hoping it would be.”
# # #
Photo captions, from top:
UTeach student Vince Richardson, dressed for swamp exploration, talks to third-graders
about Georgia habitats, including swamps.
Jamya Maxwell, 9, and classmates watch as Vince Richardson dips swamp water.
UTeacher student Sarah Hawk, left, watches as Nimya Adams, 8, and a classmate pick through swamp material.
