Weber State gets $1M grant to bolster ranks of math, science teachers
-
- Asha Willey, left, and Katelin Johnson, who are studying to become math teachers, complete an exercise in an Algebra from a Teaching Perspective class at Weber State University in Ogden on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Weber State received a $1 million grant to help bolster the number of students becoming math and science teachers.
-
- Students studying to become math teachers complete an exercise in an Algebra from a Teaching Perspective class at Weber State University in Ogden on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. From left, Nguyen Tran, Adam Barker, instructor Alee Lee and Tamlynn Merriman. Weber State received a $1 million grant to help bolster the number of students becoming math and science teachers.
-
- Students studying to become math teachers complete an exercise in an Algebra from a Teaching Perspective class at Weber State University in Ogden on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. From left, Tamlynn Merriman, Nguyen Tran and Adam Barker. Weber State received a $1 million grant to help bolster the number of students becoming math and science teachers.
-
- Jalaire Robinson, left; Adam Barker, with his back to the camera; and Jennie Haufe, studying to become math teachers, complete an exercise in an Algebra from a Teaching Perspective class at Weber State University in Ogden on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Weber State received a $1 million grant to help bolster the number of students becoming math and science teachers.
OGDEN — Jennie Haufe, studying to be an elementary school mathematics teacher, needs no time to gather her thoughts when asked what drew her to the field.
“Because I love kids and I love math,” she says, waiting for her Algebra from a Teaching Perspective class at Weber State University to begin.
That’s the sort of passion university officials seek as primary and secondary schools across Northern Utah struggle to fill math and science teaching slots. And in a bid to create more students in the mold of Haufe, the school has received at $1 million National Science Foundation grant that’s to be used to get more students to pursue math and science teaching careers.
The stakes are noteworthy — the ability of area schools to staff their math and science classrooms.
“In researching for this grant, we found that in any given year there might be a need for around 75 qualified math and science teachers in Ogden, Weber and Davis school districts alone,” said Adam Johnston, director of Weber State’s Center for Science and Math Education. The school typically graduates about a third of that number.
The reasons for the disparity run the gamut. Shortages of instructors in other teaching areas like English and history typically aren’t so pronounced, though their numbers, too, are lagging.
“Certainly the salaries that someone can earn as an engineer or doctor” — other possible professional fields for math and science students — “are much larger than what a teacher gets,” Johnston said. What’s more, “teaching and teachers have had a hard time and aren’t given the respect they deserve.”
Still, he and others see potential, think that if they approach things the right way, put teaching forward as an option, they can expand the pool. Putting a focus on the rewards that come with teaching, like the impact teachers have on the lives of individual students, is one possible approach.
“We want to change the narrative with this program by giving (science, technology, engineering and math) students more chances to try on teaching and get some support while considering it,” Johnston said.
To that end, Rachel Bachman, an associate professor of math at Weber State, says the program created by the grant, the Mathematics and Science Teacher Propel project, will open up opportunities for science and math students to at least consider teaching.
“Speaking for myself, when I got a taste for just how rewarding teaching was, I knew I wanted to go into teaching. For me, that happened as a tutor,” said Bachman.
If Weber State undergrads have an opportunity to help math and science students, she went on, they’ll see that teaching, while not necessarily the highest-paying option, “is an extremely rewarding, enjoyable pursuit that affords a really pleasant way of life.”
The $1 million grant will potentially grow to $1.2 million depending on how successfully Weber State implements the program. Funding is to go toward 18 two-year scholarships for students pursuing math or science degrees with an eye to teaching. Graduates will also be able to get a $3,600 boost in salary for their first year teaching.
The program will further open up internship opportunities for students, enabling them to work with middle and high school students as well as established teachers. That, the hope is, will give them a taste of the teaching profession.
“It’s a great time to prepare to be a teacher,” Kristin Hadley, dean of Moyes College of Education at Weber State, said in a statement.