Museum of Science, Boston Selects Educators for $200K STEM Scholarship Program

BOSTON, Mass. - The Museum of Science, Boston has selected 82 recipients, 64 elementary teachers and 18 teacher educators from 24 states, to receive scholarships under a new program that brings high-quality professional development (PD) in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to teachers at high-needs schools nationwide. The program helps scholarship recipients integrate engineering in their classrooms using the award-winning Engineering is Elementary® (EiE®) curriculum, which was developed at the Museum's National Center for Technological Literacy® (NCTL®). This is the second round of awards in the $200,000 program; 100 teachers were awarded scholarships in January 2016.

The EiE scholarship program receives no outside funding from corporate, foundation, or government funders, embodying the NCTL mission to introduce engineering and technological literacy in schools and lifelong learning centers nationwide. Although many states have recently implemented new academic standards that put unprecedented emphasis on the "E" in STEM, engineering is a new subject for many elementary teachers, and most say they don’t feel well prepared to teach it.

"We are excited to offer elementary educators from Massachusetts to California the Museum's own scholarship program," says Museum president and director Ioannis Miaoulis. "It builds on the impact of successful corporate-funded EiE scholarship programs, such as one established by Raytheon, and greatly enhances our ability to foster enthusiastic teachers able to spark student interest in engineering."

"By funding scholarships for teachers, we advance our mission to reach children who are underserved or traditionally underrepresented in STEM,” says EiE director and Museum vice president Christine Cunningham. "One way we support high-quality engineering education for all students—not just a chosen few—is through our research-based curriculum; another way is through our professional development programs, which are designed to give teachers the subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical framework they need to be successful teaching engineering.”

Each scholarship recipient will receive a complete classroom set of EiE curriculum materials plus tuition and travel support to attend a hands-on teacher PD workshop at the Museum in Boston sometime in the next 12 months. "We offer workshops on an ongoing basis, so scholarship recipients can choose the training that best fits their schedule," says EiE scholarship coordinator Chantal Balesdent.

EiE is the nation's most widely used engineering curriculum for students in grades 1 – 5; it has reached schools in all 50 states including statewide in Delaware, district wide in locations including Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis, and in military schools under DoDEA. To date, EiE has reached more than 112,000 teachers and 10.1 million students.

View full list of EiE Scholarship recipients. 

For more information contact Cynthia Berger, 814-574-8017 or Erin Shannon 617-589-0250

About Engineering is Elementary

·         EiE is a project of the Museum of Science, Boston, developed with support from the National Science Foundation.

·         The EiE curriculum includes 20 units that integrate science topics with a specific field of engineering.

·         Through the use of storybooks, EiE introduces students to children from different cultures and backgrounds who are trying to solve engineering problems.

·         EiE students as young as six years old conduct their own experiments to collect the data needed to solve a similar problem using a five-step engineering design process.

About the Museum of Science, Boston

The Museum of Science, Boston is the nation's first science museum with a comprehensive strategy and infrastructure to foster technological literacy in science museums and schools across the United States. Having reached an estimated 10.5 million students and 119,700 educators, its National Center for Technological Literacy® also received the National Science Board's Public Service Award in May 2015. One of the world's largest science centers and Boston's most attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science introduces about 1.4 million visitors a year to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) via dynamic programs and hundreds of interactive exhibits. Founded in 1830, the Museum was first to embrace all the sciences under one roof. Highlights include the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, Hall of Human Life, Thomson Theater of Electricity, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Mugar Omni Theater, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center, 4-D Theater, and Butterfly Garden.The Science Behind Pixar, created in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios, has begun a 10-year national tour. The Museum has also led a 10-year, $41 million National Science Foundation-funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network of science museums. Visit: http://www.mos.org.v