Pott College awarded more than $700,000 in grants from Indiana Commission for Higher Education
The University of Southern Indiana Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education has been awarded two grants totaling more than $700,000 from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to develop scholarships for education majors, support current teachers pursuing graduate study and develop a teacher education conference.
Dr. Kelly Sparks, assistant professor of education and principal investigator, and Dr. Rick Hudson, associate professor of mathematics, received an extension grant totaling $476,496 towards their work with the College's Teaching Eagles Scholarship Program. The program is designed to recruit science and mathematics teacher candidates from students majoring in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields and support education majors minoring in STEM education fields. For more information on the Teaching Eagles program, contact Sparks at (812) 461-5384 or kmsparks1@usi.edu.
Hudson, as principal investigator, Dr. Jeffrey Seyler, professor of chemistry, and Dr. Henri Maurice, associate professor of biology, were awarded a STEM Teacher Recruitment Grant totaling $286,941. The award will support mathemathics, biology and chemistry dual credit teachers to take graduate coursework, and also will support the development of a quantitative reasoning conference for high school teachers in the summer of 2017, to be hosted on campus.
"These projects will help Indiana fill STEM teaching positions in high-need areas across the state," said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers. "Amid statewide and national conversations about the need for more teachers who are qualified to teach STEM subjects, this fund supports efforts that help Indiana attract, support and keep great educators."
The grants were two of 13 grants totaling more than $9.6 million awarded by the ICHE to support programs that recruit, prepare, place and retain educators in schools with teacher shortages in STEM subject areas. The grants were awarded through the STEM Teacher Recruitment Fund, created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2013.
For more information, contact Hudson at 812-465-1241 or rhudson@usi.edu.