The College of Science and Mathematics at Montclair State University, with continued support from the State of New Jersey, is excited to announce the award of the NJ STEM Innovation Fellowships in middle grades science. Six teams, each consisting of three teachers from the same school/district, representing Northern and Central New Jersey, began their work around Ambitious Science Teaching at the Summer Institute in August, 2022.
Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) includes a set of interrelated core practices which center on intellectual engagement and equity. During the Institute, facilitated by experts in AST, middle school science fellows will learn about the student-centered approach and engage in effective teaching practices as learners. Fellows will be supported as they learn how to create collaborative classroom communities where students' ideas are not only central to learning, but they are supported in making sense of science concepts in a collaborative and discourse-rich classroom environment.
Beginning the second year of their program, and joining these middle school science educators, will be the members of the second cohort of mathematics fellows. Made possible by the generous support of our donors, members of Cohort 2 will continue their professional development surrounding the innovation of number strings; building on their growth from the previous year and setting goals for year two of their fellowship. Opportunities for shared experiences and community building across content areas will be made available to all participants attending the Institute.
Once again, we would like to thank our friends at MƒA as we have transitioned to the next stage of the fellowship and for their continued support in the evaluation of the mathematics fellowship.
Supporting a key tenet of the program, 93% of Cohort 2, helped to spread the innovation across their community by sharing number strings with other teachers at their school. Although a majority of these teachers were unsure if the innovation was then shared in the classroom, some teachers indicated that as a result of the ideas they shared from the fellowship, number strings had been incorporated into topics for local professional development (PD). Furthermore, two teachers from Cohort 2, advanced their individual teacher leadership roles by leading PD on number strings for other teachers at their school; serving as teacher leaders within their home communities.