Nearly 80 speakers and 400 attendees from 14 western states attended the conference that was sponsored by The National Science Foundation (NSF) and aims to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students to become and remain excellent K-12 STEM teachers. Competitive grants are awarded to institutions across the country to provide scholarships and fellowships to outstanding math and science pre-service and in-service teachers.
The conference was designed to provide professional development and networking opportunities for Noyce math and science teachers. Dr. Ross, along with colleagues Dr. David Andrews from CSU Fresno, Dr. Larry Horvath from San Francisco State University, and Dr. John Keller from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo received a grant from the National Science Foundation to provide support for two annual conferences and four workshops.
This support, which included registration fees and travel reimbursement, allowed pre-service and in-service teachers to attend the conference with little or no personal expense. The Western Regional Noyce Conference also provided an opportunity for 28 SDSU Math and Science Noyce Master Teachers to expand their leadership roles.
The SDSU Master Teaching Fellows served as session moderators, introduced keynote speakers, and created and implemented field trips and excursions for participants. In addition, three SDSU Noyce Science Credential Program Scholars participated and gained strategies to support their implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards.
The feedback from this conference was overwhelmingly positive. As a result of the success, Drs. Ross, Andrews, Horvath, and Keller are developing a proposal to seek funding to support a future series of conferences.