BHSU awarded $75K grant for STEM teacher shortage

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - The education department at Black Hills State University was recently awarded $75K by the National Science Foundation to encourage students to go into STEM teacher programs in rural areas.

The grant will address the STEM teacher shortage in rural areas, focusing on ways to inspire students, especially those from rural and low-income backgrounds, to pursue STEM teaching within the area. With this initial money, the funds will go towards interviewing teachers at rural schools, recent BHSU alumni, K-12 and university students, and others to understand the needs of these smaller schools and districts.

“We’re particularly interested in supporting rural teachers and districts and schools that are in rural Western South Dakota. We don’t see enough teachers in the field, and we don’t see enough coming to the university wanting to major in Science and Math and we think we can do a better job of recruiting and convincing students that this would be a good career path for them,” says Black Hills State Professor, Ben Sayler.

The project could receive additional grant funding of up to $1.2 million, which would include scholarships for STEM education students.

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