Sacred Heart University to establish STEM teaching program

Sacred Heart University has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation”™s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to establish a new STEM program in partnership with the public school districts in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stratford.

The program will be called Scholars Integrating Science Tech Engineering Math in Elementary Classrooms (SISTEMEC) and is designed to offer a five-year program that will prepare 18 aspiring teachers to lead STEM classes in the university described as “high-need, multicultural elementary schools.”

The program will recruit prospective first-year and transfer students, as well as matriculated first- and second-year students, with an emphasis on minority students, first-generation college students, lower-income students and veterans.

Participating students will earn a Bachelor of Science degree in interdisciplinary STEM and a Master of Arts in teaching, and will receive financial aid and student support that includes a nine-month graduate teacher internship and a master”™s mentoring program that pairs them during their junior year with a STEM teacher in a high-need school district.

“This Noyce STEM grant builds upon our very successful Noyce Biology and Mathematics for Educators scholars grant by allowing us to expand our focus on educating future STEM teachers to the elementary grade levels K-5,” said Mark Beekey, chairman and professor of biology at Sacred Heart University.