First Noyce Scholar Presents at the 2019 Noyce Summit in D.C.

Cassie Campbell, the first recipient of the prestigious Miami University Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship, made a poster presentation at the 2019 Noyce Summit in Washington, DC. Her presentation focused on the Youth Participatory Action Research Project (YPAR) she conducted with 12 middle school girls in Oyler School (Cincinnati Public School, or CPS), as part of her Urban Cohort experience. As the middle school girls identified and reflected on the issues they saw as prevalent issues having real consequences for their community. Cassie facilitated the girls’ investigation of the symptoms and causes of each issue through a process of dialogue, action, and exploration.

Regarding this project and her presentation, Cassie stated:
“As a Noyce Scholar, I was able to learn what it meant to create responsive curriculum and how to use issues that the girls identified to teach mathematical concepts. For example, when we created a survey for students in the school to learn about other students’ experiences with bullying, we wanted to include a section on demographics. This led to a discussion on fractions, converting fractions into percentages, and analyzing data in a real-world context. In doing such, I learned what it meant to create authentic culturally relevant pedagogy. In this poster, I shared examples on how to create STEM instruction rooted in the lived experiences of youth.”

The Noyce Summit, co-hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) STEM Education Program and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Undergraduate Education and held in Washington, DC. The summit is the annual gathering of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which encourages individuals studying STEM or working in STEM professions to become elementary, middle and high school STEM teachers.

The summit brought together educators, researchers, and administrators to explore the goal of retaining STEM teachers in classrooms and identify how teacher preparation programs can best prepare teachers for the challenges of the classroom.

STEM majors who are interested in the MU-Noyce Program can visit http://miamioh.edu/ehs/noyce for more information.