PA College Gets $1 Million Grant for STEM Teacher Training Program

To help increase the number of qualified secondary STEM instructors, Westminster College in Pennsylvania has received a $1 million grant for its IQ  STEM teacher training program.

The grant was made through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program of the National Science Foundation, which focuses on encouraging science and math majors to become secondary educators and supports scholarships and academic programs at various colleges of education.

At Westminster, the grant is expected to help increase the number of qualified STEM teachers in western Pennsylvania by more than 50 percent, with a cohort of 20 educators specialized in teaching in areas of high need at the end of five years.

The college plans to offer related workshops, research projects, and a course "designed to address the racial, cultural, and economic needs of school districts trying to narrow the achievement gap," according to the school. It will also collaborate with local, high need school districts in surrounding areas and offer a scholarship for undergrad STEM majors who can commit to teaching in high need districts.

About the Author

Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • glowing digital brain interacts with an open book, with stacks of books beside it

    Federal Court Rules AI Training with Copyrighted Books Fair Use

    A federal judge ruled this week that artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not violate copyright law when it used copyrighted books to train its Claude chatbot without author consent, but ordered the company to face trial on allegations it used pirated versions of the books.

  • server racks, a human head with a microchip, data pipes, cloud storage, and analytical symbols

    OpenAI, Oracle Expand AI Infrastructure Partnership

    OpenAI and Oracle have announced they will develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, expanding their artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership as part of the Stargate Project, a joint venture among OpenAI, Oracle, and Japan's SoftBank Group that aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of computing capacity over four years.

  • laptop displaying a phishing email icon inside a browser window on the screen

    Phishing Campaign Targets ED Grant Portal

    Threat researchers at cybersecurity company BforeAI have identified a phishing campaign spoofing the U.S. Department of Education's G5 grant management portal.