Needed Supports of Middle Grade Teachers in Georgia During Times of Stress and Burnout

Understanding what teachers need to help them relieve occupational stress can help administrators effectively combat teacher burnout. With the multiple roles teachers play, it is easy to see how role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload increase the chances that a teacher will suffer from occupational related stress and subsequent burnout. If left unalleviated, teachers may begin to feel emotionally exhausted, detached from their colleagues, and lack feelings of personal accomplishment which can lead to burnout. The purpose of this study was to ascertain what teachers would like to see administrators do to help them combat the day-to-day stresses of teaching. The study consisted of two phases, one quantitative and one qualitative. The quantitative portion showed that the teachers in this study were suffering from moderate degrees of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. However, these teachers also felt high degrees of personal accomplishment. During the qualitative phase of the study, the researcher interviewed teachers to determine precisely what supports they would like to see from their administrators. The results fell into the following five categories, communication, discipline, professional development, consistency of rule enforcement, and reduction of paperwork. In addition, the researcher examined county documents to see what resources were available to help teachers who were feeling stressed. The results of this study showed that teachers are stressed; however, none of the documentation from the county offered assistance to teachers in times of stress. While the teachers in this study did feel mostly positive about their jobs and their impact on students, it is still obvious from the results of the study that small changes by administrators in the day-to-day operations of the school would go a long way to assisting teachers in combating job stress

I\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3eSTEM\u3csup\u3ee\u3c/sup\u3e - What, Who, Where?

I2STEMe is a new Institute on the campus of GSU whose focus is to increase opportunities for K-20 students, teachers, and businesses to partner together to improve STEM Education in Georgia around the tenets of place-based learning, problem based learning and teaching for understanding

International Professional Development: Lessons Learned

In 2016 Georgia Southern University Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education (i 2 STEM e ) was approached by a collaborative group of educators from India now living in the US. They noticed a need for teachers in India to have access to the Interdisciplinary STEM Education pedagogical techniques through focused professional development. Over the course of the next two years, the partnership developed and in September 2016 the first group of educators in India was given a professional development opportunity around the concepts of Authentic Teaching, including place-based education, problem based learning, and project based learning. This paper will discuss the approach the educators delivering the professional development took, the barriers and successes to implementing professional development in a new cultural setting, and the next steps to be taken. It is hoped that this information will provide future providers of PD, who are working outside their country of residence, with insights and ideas on working with a culturally different and diverse educational setting

Complex Adaptive Systems and Quantitative Reasoning in an Interdisciplinary STEM Mathematics Classroom

In this presentation we will share outcomes from the Real STEM project, which provides professional development for rural teachers in the Georgia Coastal Plains supporting implementation of interdisciplinary STEM courses as well as STEM modules in mathematics and science courses. Real STEM includes a number of innovative student-active strategies for teaching including: Understanding by Design (UbD) approaches to teaching for understanding, problem-based learning (PBL), place-based education (PBE), complex adaptive systems (CAS) thinking, and quantitative reasoning (QR). QR is the mathematical underpinning of the projects. The projects are ongoing so we will report our results on impact on teacher practice and student learning to this point. We will conclude with a discussion of how the projects may address issues of engagement for rural, low socio-economic status student populations in STEM in Central America and the Caribbean

Complex adaptive systems and quantitative reasoning in an interdisciplinary STEM mathematics classroom

In this presentation we will share outcomes from the Real STEM project, which provides professional development for rural teachers in the Georgia Coastal Plains supporting implementation of interdisciplinary STEM courses as well as STEM modules in mathematics and science courses. Real STEM includes a number of innovative student-active strategies for teaching including: Understanding by Design (UbD) approaches to teaching for understanding, problem-based learning (PBL), place-based education (PBE), complex adaptive systems (CAS) thinking, and quantitative reasoning (QR). QR is the mathematical underpinning of the projects. The projects are ongoing so we will report our results on impact on teacher practice and student learning to this point. We will conclude with a discussion of how the projects may address issues of engagement for rural, low socio-economic status student populations in STEM in Central America and the Caribbean

Developing Collaborative Partnerships: STEM on a Mission

The Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education at Georgia Southern University seeks to develop partnerships with schools, businesses, and research institutes to improve STEM Education in rural Georgia. This is not without it’s challenges. This session will focus on an overview of the Institute and then engage participants in a round table discussion of best practices to improve partnerships

Characteristics of Rural STEM Clubs and Implications for Students with Disabilities

There are many benefits for students to participate in extracurricular science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities or clubs. It is also known that students with disabilities (SWD) do not participate as much as their peers without disabilities (SWOD). However, there is a lack of research on SWD and their participation in STEM clubs. This sequential explanatory mixed method study explored teachers’ perceptions of the types and characteristics of STEM clubs and their participants, and their professional development (PD) to work with SWD in their clubs. Findings suggest a variety of STEM clubs are offered with an average of 20 students each but most participants did not know how many SWD were in their clubs. None had PD to work with SWD in informal environments. A discussion of findings include accommodations STEM club sponsors can use with SWD

Recruitment & Retention of Students with Disabilities in Extracurricular STEM Activities

This presentation will share the research and data the team has collected through two studies on SWD and informal STEM learning environments. We will examine why SWD do not participate in extracurricular STEM activities and what can be done by teachers and club sponsors to mitigate these barriers

Recruitment and retention of students with disabilities in extracurricular STEM activities

Presentation given at National Youth at Risk Annual Conference

SciComm: What does it mean to communicate with the public?

Science Communication has come a long way in recent years, however, researchers still struggle with making their research relevant, interesting and accessible to the general public. This session will look at the ways science (and research in general) is communicated and provide some tips on helping researchers communicate more effectively including audience participation, humor, and formative assessment. Session is focused on researchers but is relevant to post-secondary education and K12 educators as well