Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in STEM Teaching

College of Arts and Sciences

Website:  https://mst.osta.fsu.edu

Director: Ellen Granger (granger@bio.fsu.edu)

Program Overview

The College of Arts and Sciences offers a master's degree for students seeking a science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) career path that involves teaching through the Masters in STEM Teaching (MST) program. A typical candidate plans to become a faculty member or teacher, whether a tenure-track professor or lecturer at a 4-year college or university, an instructor at a 2-year college, or even a K-12 teacher. Through required coursework and teaching internships, the program offers an opportunity to STEM undergraduates to become exceptionally qualified teachers at either the secondary or post-secondary level.

MST is a non-thesis master's program, designed to extend and deepen the science background of its students through graduate coursework in their STEM content areas, as well as provide strong preparation in the pedagogical aspects of STEM teaching and learning, including high-quality, extended teaching internships. The program builds upon a strong partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education to provide the best experiences for students in the content (STEM) and teaching (education) areas, working with Tallahassee Community College and FSU STEM Departments to provide teaching internship experiences for all students.

Typical students fit into one of two categories: (1) those pursuing MST as a stand-alone MS program after completion of a BS degree in a STEM discipline, or (2) those pursuing MST concurrently with a graduate degree in one of FSU's STEM departments with the permission of both programs.

For more information, contact the program director.

Definition of Prefix

ISC—Interdisciplinary Sciences

Graduate Courses

ISC 5098. Reflective Science Teaching (2). Prerequisites: ISC 5525, ISC 5535, ISC 5944, and ISC 5946. Corequisites: ISC 5945 and ISC 8938. This course provides a forum for discussion of contemporary science teaching issues and concerns associated with the corequisite full-time internship.

ISC 5295. College Science Teaching and Learning (3). This course is a study of best practices for college science teaching and learning as grounded in recent recommendations from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and based on the accumulating findings of discipline-based education research on post-secondary science teaching.

ISC 5525. Accomplished Practices in Science Teaching (2). Prerequisites: EDF 4210, EDF 4430, EDG 4321, RED 4335, and TSL 4324. In this course, students develop the practical skills needed to successfully complete a teaching portfolio using Chalk and Wire, reflect on prerequisite coursework and associated field experiences, and set goals for future internship experiences.

ISC 5535. Research in the Content Area for Teachers (6). Corequisite: ISC 5525. This course immerses pre-service teachers in science research and reflection on the pedagogy of inquiry-based teaching. Students also develop a template for designing inquiry-based teaching in the classroom.

ISC 5944. Ethics, School Law, and Management of Science Classrooms (3). Prerequisites: ISC 5525 and ISC 5535. Corequisite: ISC 5946. This course provides support and guidance to Master in Science Teaching students engaged in their half-time student teaching. The focus is on classroom management and planning, professional ethics, and state and federal school laws.

ISC 5945. Full–Time Teaching Internship (6). (S/U grade only). Prerequisites: ISC 5944 and ISC 5946. This internship is for students in the Master in Science Teaching program. Students complete at least thirteen weeks of student teaching in the classroom.

ISC 5946. Half–Time Teaching Internship (3). (S/U grade only). Prerequisite: ISC 5525. Corequisite: ISC 5944. This course provides a closely supervised half-time internship under the guidance of a mentor teacher and a university supervisor. Students concentrate on observing the management, teaching, and assessment strategies of a supervising teacher, and teach a unit of instruction in the classroom.

ISC 8938. Portfolio Review (0). (S/U grade only). Prerequisite: ISC 5525. Corequisites: ISC 5098 and ISC 5945. This course is required to assess students' individual portfolios based on the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices. These portfolios are the summation of work accomplished during the Master in Science Teaching program and students must receive a satisfactory grade in this course for program completion.