UNIVERSITY TO OFFER STEM EDUCATION MASTER'S DEGREE

The new degree, which will be offered in the fall of 2011, is part of a larger and wide-ranging interdisciplinary initiative at Boise State to conduct research, leverage resources and create opportunities for overcoming a shortage of teachers qualified to teach STEM subjects.

The Idaho State Board of Education (SBOE) granted Boise State permission to offer the new degree on April 21.

This isn't Boise State's first rodeo with STEM education either. Last summer, they used a $1.25 million grant to create STEM Station,  an initiative to coordinate STEM-related activities across campus and Idaho in order to find innovative methods for educating the next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians and STEM teachers.

According to Boise State's independent student media, arbiteronline.com, the new degree program broadens the emphasis of an existing master’s degree in earth science education offered by the Department of Geosciences. All of the new degree’s class requirements are already being taught on campus, making the impact on fiscal resources negligible.