CWU’s WA-STELLAR project seeks teachers for NSF fellowship

Last year, Central Washington University received a six-year, $1.5 million Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Washington STEM Teachers Engaging in Leadership, Learning and Research (WA-STELLAR) program.

As the first cohort of Master Teacher Fellows (MTFs) has hit the ground running, the project now seeks an additional nine fellows to round out the network and continue building on the collective knowledge base that lies at the core of the initiative.

"We want to make Central synonymous with STEM education," said CWU Professor of Mathematics Mark Oursland, who serves as program director for the STEM leadership graduate program. "What we've been doing is growing our network, which the NSF grant has been a huge help in doing, and these fellows are an integral part of that network."

MTFs receive an annual, grant-supported stipend of $10,000 over five years. The grant also supports events and workshops for participants, focusing on diversifying and expanding upon common teaching practices in a culturally responsive way. Project director and CWU Assistant Professor of Mathematics Brent Hancock believes this approach will better serve students from a wider variety of communities and backgrounds.

"We want STEM education to leverage the experiences and backgrounds of all of our students," he said. "Historically, there's been kind of this list of topics and a way of doing things that assumes everyone shares the same experiences, but we know that to not be the case. The context at a rural school as opposed to an urban one is very different."

In addition to these planned learning opportunities, MTFs interact with the statewide community of administrators, coordinators, and STEM experts through an annual STEM stakeholder summit, which was held on the CWU campus August 18-19. Through these large gatherings, MTFs receive feedback, inspiration, and counsel from a broad variety of their peers, preparing them to become leaders within their own communities and help others implement these forward-thinking practices. Since no two communities are alike, flexibility, open-mindedness, and access to this ever-expanding network is vital in bolstering STEM education for a fast-approaching future.

"Those are tricky endeavors, so it really takes a village of folks in the STEM community to come together and make that happen," Oursland said. "Together, we're capable of so much."

Applications for the next cohort of WA-STELLAR MTFs are due October 20. Applicants must be K-12 STEM teachers at high-need schools and have completed, or be within one year of finishing, their master's degree in teaching or a STEM discipline.