Utah State University graduate student Mark Towner, a science teacher at Granite Park Middle School in Salt Lake City, was chosen from hundreds of applications nationwide to participate as an Amgen-National Science Teachers Association Fellow in the 2009 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy.

 

Towner currently is pursuing a master’s degree in education from USU through the Alternative Route to Licensure program.

 

The only teacher selected from Utah, Towner will participate with 184 other science teachers from across the country in a year-long professional development program designed to help promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence and improve teacher content knowledge.

 

“At NSTA, we believe it is important to help educators develop their skills as teachers so that they can not only bolster student achievement, but better inspire passion for science in their students,” said Francis Eberle, executive director of NSTA. “We congratulate this year’s group of Fellows and are grateful for their commitment to science education and to their students.”

 

The 2009 Fellows were selected on the basis of several criteria, including showing evidence of a solid science background and displaying a strong interest in growing as a professional science educator. Each Fellow will receive a comprehensive NSTA membership package, online mentoring with trained mentors who teach in the same discipline and the opportunity to participate in a variety of web-based professional development activities, including web seminars.

 

In addition, each Fellow will receive financial support to attend and participate in NSTA’s 2010 National Conference on Science Education in Philadelphia.

 

The NSTA, the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning, coordinates the program in partnership with the Amgen Foundation, Agilent Technologies Foundation, Astellas Pharma US and Bayer Corporation.

 

Launched during the spring of 2007, the NSTA New Science Teacher Academy, co-founded by the Amgen Foundation, was established to help reduce the high attrition rate in the science teaching profession by providing professional development and mentoring support to early-career science teachers.

 

USU’s Alternative Route for Licensure program recruits potential teachers from the private sector who have already received degrees but did not take any education courses in college. ARL students are allowed to teach full time for up to three years while completing a professional growth plan that meets requirements for a teaching license. Once completed, the teachers receive the same license that any other teacher would have received had they gone through a university teaching program.

 

“Science teacher picked for program,” by Faroe Robinson, Deseret Morning News