About the Noyce Fellowship Program

The Noyce program began at CU Boulder in 2005, and we have awarded 22 Noyce Fellowships since then. Figure 2 shows the number of new Noyce Fellowships awarded each year and how these awards are distributed among women and minority students (students from ethnic groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM disciplines, specifically Native American, Hispanic, and African American students). Note that Year 4 shows only the Spring 2008 cohort. We anticipate at least 6 more (mostly confirmed applicants) by the end of the year.

Figure 2. Distribution of Noyce Fellowships each year of the project.

Figure 2 also shows the number of Noyce Fellows completing the certification program each year of the project. Figure 3 shows the distribution of majors among Noyce Fellows. This is important because the LA/Noyce Fellowship program targets majors that are historically underrepresented in CU Boulder’s secondary certification program and in areas of greatest national need (AAEE, 2003). For example, a five-year average prior to 2004 shows that fewer than 1 physics major per year was completing CU Boulder’s secondary science certification program. The numbers were similar for Applied Mathematics and for Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; and zero Astrophysics majors were entering the certification program. A majority of the science teacher candidates at CU Boulder typically come from Environmental Studies and Evolutionary Biology (therefore these departments have not been the target of our efforts).

Figure 3. Distribution of Noyce Fellowships by major.

Not all of the students who have been recruited to teaching careers through the Learning Assistant program have applied for Noyce Fellowships. The most common reasons reported for not applying for the Noyce fellowship is that the student is not sure that he/she was ready to commit to teaching two years for each year of scholarship. Other reasons include that they entered alternative certification programs such as Teach for America or Emergency Certification programs. 

All of our Noyce Fellows are required to engage in discipline-based educational research with a science, mathematics, or education faculty member. Each of these research projects is closely aligned with formative assessment, research-based instructional design, or another area that we believe should be a part of standard practice for all teachers. These students present their research results at national and local conferences and are beginning to co-author the results of their work and submit them to academic journals. Some examples of Noyce work are listed below (Noyce Fellows indicated by *).

• Klymkowsky, M. W., Gheen, R.,* & Garvin-Doxas, K. (2007). Avoiding reflex responses: Strategies for revealing students' conceptual understanding in biology. In L. McCullough, J. Hsu & P. Heron, (Eds.), 2007 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. Melville, NY: AIP Press, 3-6.
• Otero, V., Jalovec, S.,* & Her Many Horses, I.* (2006, July). Evolution of Students’ model-,building practices in an inquiry-based physics course. Paper presented at the biannual meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers, Syracuse, NY.
• Spooner, K.,* Geist, A.,* Curry, J., Dougherty, A., & Nelson, M. (2007, January). Learning Assistant research in the Applied Mathematics department, Boulder, Colorado. Paper presented at the Joint Mathematics Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
• Nelson, M. A., Geist, A.,* & Venturo, A.* (2008, January). Noyce Fellows and Learning Assistants at CU, Boulder. Paper presented at the Joint Mathematics Meeting, San Diego, CA.
• McKagan, S. B., Handley, W.,* Perkins, K. K., & Wieman, C. E. (submitted). A research-based curriculum for teaching the photoelectric effect, American Journal of Physics.

Another important element of the Noyce Fellowship program at CU Boulder is our First Monday meetings. On the first Monday of every month, current Noyce Fellows, former Noyce Fellows who are currently teaching in the field, and students who are considering applying for Noyce Fellowships (and to the certification program) meet with one or two project PIs to discuss issues in education. These discussions range from actual exchange of lesson-plan ideas to practical advice about where to teach and how to find the right student teaching and job placements. These meetings have proven to be valuable for recruiting new students to the Noyce Fellows community and for bridging the gap between the certification program and the first year of teaching. A small amount of funding has been built into our Phase II Noyce budget to provide minigrants for former Noyce Fellows to purchase supplies for their classrooms. This type of minigrant is one of the needs they have expressed in these meetings. Mostly, however, the former Noyce fellows serve as expert mentors for current and future Noyce Fellows.