University of Texas Arlington

24 September 2010

Media Contact: Traci Peterson, Office:817-272-9208, Cell:817-521-5494, tpeterso@uta.edu

Cavallo

The colleges will work with the Arlington, Dallas, Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Fort Worth school districts on the five-year project, placing the teacher candidates in early field experiences with mentor teachers in the four districts.

The new grant comes on the heels of a previously funded NSF Robert Noyce Grant to UT Arlington for $900,000. Together, the two NSF grants offer two-year, $10,000 annual scholarships to selected undergraduate students seeking teacher certification in middle school science/mathematics and in high school earth science, biology, chemistry and physics.

In addition, the grant will support post-baccalaureate students seeking to switch careers and become secondary math or science teachers. These returning students are eligible to apply for a one-year, $10,000 scholarship. In exchange for the generous scholarship support, the newly certified math and physical science teachers will pledge to serve for at least two years in a high-need school for each year of scholarship support

Professor Ann Cavallo, associate dean of the College of Education and Health Professions, is the principal investigator on both Robert Noyce grants. She is collaborating on the new NSF grant with co-principal investigators Greg Hale, assistant dean of science, Ramon Lopez, professor of physics, Theresa Jorgensen, assistant professor of mathematics, and Laura Mydlarz, assistant professor of biology. Hale, Lopez and James Epperson, associate professor of mathematics, were co-investigators on the previous grant.

The new NSF funding complements an ongoing $700,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's Math Science Technology Teacher Preparation Academy program and the UTeach Arlington program. UTeach Arlington is sponsored by $1.4 million from the National Science and Mathematics Initiative that was awarded to Hale, Cavallo and Lopez.