Helping Teachers Strengthen STEM Lessons

Middle and high school teachers will have a new program to help them teach computer science and engineering skills to students.

The STEM Teacher Leadership Program at Georgia Tech will create a professional network of teachers from metro Atlanta to serve as instructional leaders to strengthen students’ learning experience in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The program, which was announced Wednesday, is a joint effort of the Institute and Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate citizenship initiative.

Participating school districts include Atlanta Public Schools and the school systems of Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.

Key components of the two-year program include:

  • Four weeks of intensive summer training in software engineering and computing with 25 selected teachers. Teachers will have access to Georgia Tech’s computing research and Honeywell engineers, who will serve as mentors and coaches.
  • The Honeywell STEM Challenge, a software engineering competition open to students of teachers who participate in the STEM Teacher Leadership Program. Students will work in teams to solve real-world challenges using software coding and computation techniques.
  • An annual STEM Teacher Leadership Program Symposium, where alumni and other teachers and leaders from the metro Atlanta area can attend academic and networking activities at Georgia Tech.

The program will be facilitated by Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC).

“We’re pleased to continue our relationship with Honeywell as part of our vision to be among the most highly respected, technology-focused learning institutions in the world,” said Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Tech’s provost, executive vice president for academic affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “Strong students start with strong foundations. Together with Honeywell’s support, Georgia Tech will be able to continue to place strategic emphasis on teachers as they prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.”

Beyond the new program, Honeywell and Georgia Tech already collaborate on job fairs, research projects and other academic opportunities and internships.

“The complexities of today’s connected world require young people to learn new computer science and software skills to solve tomorrow’s problems,” said Jamshed Patel, site leader for Honeywell’s Atlanta Software Center. “By offering new teaching techniques in these subject areas to metro Atlanta teachers, we hope to prepare students to join a workforce where success comes from the ability to logically think through a technical problem and find a way to solve it.”

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For More Information Contact

For media inquiries, email Laura Diamond, laura.diamond@gatech.edu 
To participate in The STEM Teacher Leadership Program at Georgia Tech, email stlp@ceismc.gatech.edu