School-University Partnership for Excellence in Research-based (SUPER) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Project

In the fall of 2002, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Baltimore County Public Schools came together to create the SUPER STEM Program partnership. UMBC/BCPS were awarded a five year funding mechanism by NSF to meet the three main goals laid forth below.

1.  SUPER STEM will provide challenging curricula to increase STEM achievement and reduce the race and poverty achievement gaps by

•  Establishing visiting talented scientists and educators from businesses, universities,

     and school systems to teach STEM

•  Creating six technology-mediated STEM academies at high needs PreK-12 schools.

•  Extending UMBC's existing School to University (STU) program to 80-120 high-needs

     students to participate in hands-on STEM instruction and attend a variety of field trips.

•  Granting scholarships to teachers and principals to attract the talented professionals to

     the highest-need schools.

2.  SUPER STEM will increase the number, quality, and diversity of math and science teachers, in low-performing underserved schools by

•  Providing training (over 100 hours per teacher) on designing, implementing, and

     assessing STEM focused educational practices.

•  Recruiting high-quality STEM supervising teachers to train interns/teacher candidates.

•  Recruiting, preparing, supporting and retaining 176 UMBC UTE Interns to BCPS's lowest

     performing schools.

3.  SUPER STEM will conduct assessments of Project outcomes and contribute to the development of national math and science education reform

•  Reporting the progress and impact of project initiatives at the student, teacher,

    school and BCPS level.

•  Disseminating finding through various education conferences.

* "This project was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. EHR-0227256."
* "Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."