Shodor Offers International Opportunities to Noyce Scholars and Fellows

July 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Through funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and partnered with the National Computational Science Institute (NCSI) Shodor is offering a series of international faculty engagement and professional development opportunities to participants in the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and NSF Teaching Fellowship.

In February 2012 Shodor took a group of pre-service teachers to Dublin, Ireland where they took part in a two-day workshop, located at Dublin City University, focused on inquiry based learning in the sciences. On June 30th 2012 Shodor again embarked on international travel with a group of pre-service educators, this time to Crete, Greece. Once in Crete trip participants attended The Best Practices in Inquiry-Based Science Education Pathway Summer School organized by the University of Crete Physics department. Workshop participant, Amy Jacobson, comments on her experience in Greece saying, “I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to 3connect with and learn from educators across the world. Just having experiences talking with foreign teachers has broadened my perspective about the significance of incorporating interesting, well-developed, and engaging lesson plans”.  

Both of these workshops were designed to introduce participants to inquiry-based learning and educate them on how to implement such practices in the classroom, while also introducing American educators to international educational practices. Zach McCoy, workshop participant, spoke to this point, “I learned a lot in the workshops, I loved the food, touring the cities, and swimming in the Mediterranean, but I learned the most from the people”. By offering international opportunities to pre-service and in-service educators, Shodor, The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, and the NSF Teaching Fellowship hope to foster both national and international collaboration between STEM educators and institutions.

Funding for this project is projected to continue throughout the next two years, during which Shodor hopes to continue to offer a variety of international experiences for Noyce scholars and fellows.

About Noyce
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is designed to encourage professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers (as well as people interested in these fields) to become K-12 math and science educators. Similarly the NSF Teaching Fellowship provides support and funding to professionals that are pursing their teaching certification while also requiring them to fulfill a four-year teaching commitment after completion of their educational programs.

About Shodor
Shodor, a national resource for computational science education, is located in Durham, N.C., and serves students and educators nationwide. In addition to developing and deploying interactive models, simulations, and educational tools, Shodor serves students and educators directly through workshops and other hands-on experiences.

Shodor offers innovative workshops helping faculty and teachers incorporate computational science into their own curricula or programs. For students from middle school through undergraduate levels of education, Shodor offers workshops, apprenticeships, internships and off-site programs that explore new approaches to math and science education through computational science.

Time and time again, Shodor has been recognized as a national leader and a premier resource in the effective use of computers to improve both math and science education.