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Home > HCAS > HCAS_PUBS > HCAS_JOURNALS > TQR Home > TQR > Vol. 25 > No. 12 (2020)

 

Abstract

STEM Outreach Center is a non-profit educational center in southern New Mexico that supports K-12 STEM teachers and students by providing professional development, after school programs, summer camps, and field visits. This center has been organizing the Summer Institute Professional Development (SIPD) for more than ten years. The purpose of this research is to understand the effect of SIPD on teachers’ pedagogy to excite and engage students in STEM learning. This study contributes to the program evaluation by analyzing the experiences of teachers who participated in SIPD. This qualitative study uses the open-ended questionnaire as a method of data collection. The findings of this study show that teachers who attended the SIPD are eager to (i) integrate readings and arts in STEM teaching practices, (ii) improve their teaching pedagogies, and (iii) look for additional resources to support STEM teaching. Therefore, the authors recommend further research on how teachers transfer skills into their classrooms after attending SIPD.

Keywords

Case Study, Professional Development, Transforming STEM, Hands-On Activities, Experiential Learning

Author Bio(s)

Dr. Roshani Rajbanshi works at Kathmandu University, School of Education. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico State University with a major in Educational Learning Technologies and a minor in Biology. Her research interests are in STEM education, professional development for teachers, technology use in classroom and science education. Please direct correspondence to gaspard@nmsu.edu.

Dr. Susan Brown is a research professor and director of the STEM Outreach Center at New Mexico State University. Dr. Brown is the interim dean of the College of Education at NMSU. She has received several professional awards, and during her 19 years at NMSU, Dr. Brown has been awarded nearly $23 million in research grants.

Dr. Gaspard Mucundanyi is a postdoc scholar at New Mexico State University. He is passionate to research the best practices of integrating technology in teaching and advocate for social justice in education. Please direct correspondence to gaspard@nmsu.edu.

Mehmet Ali Ozer is a PhD Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration on Educational Learning Technologies at New Mexico State University. He is interested to do research in STEM, pedagogy and technology, educational games, research methods in education, and distance education.

Nicole Delgardo is a former assistant director of the STEM Outreach Center at New Mexico State University and interim director of the STEM Outreach Center. She coordinated teacher professional development and developed workshops and conferences for teachers to explore STEM topics.

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank STEM Outreach Center for allowing them to observe the sessions and collect data as well as Margarita Ruiz Guerrero for her support in the SIPD, motivation, and encouragement to the authors in writing this article! Gracias

Publication Date

12-5-2020

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4183

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