by Kristine Brown
This past fall, the Carnegie Corporation awarded Rider University a prestigious $50,000 grant to support a unique new project aimed at bringing more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers to local classrooms.
School of Education Dean Sharon Sherman explained the project, saying strong teacher candidates who are eager to transform STEM education will be immersed in elementary classrooms, with the goal of becoming effective teachers by working directly with children. “During this nine-month residency program in a local K-5 school, these future teachers will learn instructional theory and practice from Rider professors and classroom teachers,” she says.
According to the Carnegie Corp., more and better trained STEM teachers are essential to preparing America’s students to fully participate in our democracy and to comprehend, and devise solutions to, complex national and global challenges.
Rider is a designated 100Kin10 institution, a multisector partnership aimed at training 100,000 STEM teachers over the next 10 years. Rider’s School of Education was named a partner for its innovative, measurable commitment to educating a new generation of STEM teachers.
Via mentoring and intellectual input from its science and math alumni as well as grant-funded projects, Rider exposes students to STEM in the “real world” while providing students with career preparation opportunities.
Sherman adds, “Students in all schools must have STEM education at the highest levels if they are going to eventually compete in a global marketplace, where most jobs – if not all – will be based on skills developed from a STEM curriculum.”
For more information, visit www.rider.edu/stem.
