Wilkes-Barre, Pa.—King’s College just welcomed its first group of Northeastern Pennsylvania educators as part of its new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) endorsement program funded by a $295,000 PAsmart grant.
After a competitive application process, 20 newly enrolled graduate students received grant-funded tuition, a laptop, and a kit of STEM instructional materials that includes programmable robots for classroom use. The students received the materials at a welcome reception in August 2023.
The PAsmart grant seeks to address the lack of participation of under-represented students in STEM classes. The related program at the College is scheduled to roll out in phases, which started in August 2022 with monthly meetings between faculty and community partners to develop criteria that help students with disabilities access STEM.
The effort is led by faculty Sunny Minelli Weiland, Ph.D., program director of curriculum and instruction; Andrew Wojcik, Ph.D.; and Dara Soljaga, Ph.D., associate dean of education. Community partners include The Lands at Hillside Farms, Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19, Tunkhannock Area School District, The Graham Academy, and Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Investment Board Inc.
“We’re excited to begin the next phase of the project by enrolling a full cohort of local teachers,” said Dr. Weiland. “This group, which is primarily made up of special educators, will complete a year’s worth of coursework that will empower them to make STEM more accessible to students across Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
The cohort includes teachers from the Greater Nanticoke Area School District, the Old Forge School District, Wyoming Valley West, the Riverside School District, the Carbondale Area School District, Holy Redeemer High School, Friendship House, the Diocese of Scranton, the Wilkes University SHINE program, the North Pocono School District, the Hazleton Area School District, and the Northwest Area School District.
As part of their STEM instruction kit, each educator received access to the Sphero Edu robot application, which helps children as young as eight years old control robots by drawing a path for them to follow.
The College has offered a Pennsylvania Department of Education-approved STEM endorsement since 2015. The courses are part of the College’s Master of Education in curriculum and instruction program, which is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2024 semester. For more information, visit the education webpage here.