The educational certification program UFTeach is participating in an initiative to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics in public schools.
STEM TIPS, an online STEM instruction coaching platform, partnered with UFTeach over the summer.
The STEM program, which began in November 2013, received a two-year $2 million grant from UF and the Florida Department of Education in 2012 to create a research-based STEM system for students in the College of Education.
More than 50 UFTeach students, majoring in STEM fields and minoring in UFTeach, are using the online platform.
Gloria Weber, a UFTeach mathematics teacher, said UFTeach began using the program to provide UFTeach students with STEM resources to use in their future classrooms.
“We started to incorporate it into our courses so that our students could use it for lessons and planning resources that are available there,” Weber said. “They also have something that allows us to have our students videotape their lessons and do an analysis of their lessons by watching themselves on videotape.”
STEM TIPS is being shared with about 18 public school districts in Florida to better serve teachers looking to implement STEM learning in classrooms.
The program also provides support for educators to connect and socialize with other STEM teachers outside their public school districts. Jason Arnold, who worked to create the STEM website, said some teachers need help promoting STEM fields at their schools.
“In Florida, that is not uncommon,” he said. “There are 67 counties, and in a majority of them, there are teachers who are completely without a support system in their content area.”
Weber said UFTeach is working on incorporating the program into the curriculum.
“We haven’t had as much opportunity as we would like to be able to explore things, but there is some good stuff there, and we’re happy that we have access to some of the resources STEM TIPS provides,” she said.
Sarah Cimino, an 18-year-old UF biology freshman, said this program is great for helping new teachers because she remembers the bad experiences she had with math teachers.
“I think math is something that needs a good teacher, and putting more time and effort into it will definitely help,” said Cimino.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 10/3/2014]
