Elevating STEM education in Mississippi and beyond

The Center for STEM Education offers Certificate, M.S., and Ph.D. programs in STEM education as well as opportunities to collaborate on STEM education research.

Why a class, certificate, or degree in the Center for STEM Education?

• Improve your ability to teach science and math to every kind of learner.
• Pursue tenure-track research and teaching positions at universities and colleges.
• Serve as STEM curriculum directors and school administrators.
• Develop programming for out-of-school organizations, museums, and learning centers. 

Graduate students are the pinnacle of an institution, and we use one-on-one mentoring to help them succeed both on campus and beyond.

More information on graduate programs   Plan a visit

Why collaborate with STEM Education researchers?

Our faculty are mathematics and science education researchers—with expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods—working towards multiple research goals:

• Designing new ways to help children learn mathematical concepts.
• Investigating science lab activities that inspire high school students.
• Developing more equitable learning communities for K-12 classrooms.
• Exploring climate science through outdoor learning.
• Finding creative ways to use virtual learning tools to improve outcomes.
• Working with academic and industry partners to tie secondary STEM education to regional job opportunities. 

Meet our faculty and staff

Cutting-edge STEMed programs

USM is home to an innovative program that supports teachers across the state with virtual lessons in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for kindergarten through 8th grade classrooms in Mississippi.	Funded by a DoDSTEM grant, the JROTC STEM Academy gives Cadets around the country the opportunity to interact with scientists and engineers, observe a broad range of STEM careers, and participate as part of a Cadet team to create, test, and improve their own solutions to STEM-focused engineering design challenges.
Contact: Dr.%20Allison%20Downing	Contact: Dr.%20Julie%20Cwikla
STEM on Demand	JROTC
STEMontheGO is a new campus-wide initiative to provide free STEM teaching kits aligned to a variety of science and math disciplines for use by faculty and students to share important concepts through hands-on activities.	NExUS-MS is a multi-dimensional community-based research and education group led by Dr. Maria Wallace that brings together informal science educators, aspiring and current K12 teachers, youth, and graduate students from diverse fields, to engage in a community-engaged approach to evaluation and research.
Contact: Dr.%20Teresa%20Lampe	Contact Dr.%20Maria%20Wallace
STEMontheGO	NExUS-MS
The EJSLA is funded by a Steps Coalition grant from the National Academies Gulf Research Program, and the curriculum development work is coordinated by USM faculty members Drs. Jennifer Walker, David Holt, and Rachel Gisewhite.	S3: Sustainable STEM By-the-Sea is funded by the National Academies Gulf Research Program to provide STEM camps and teacher training that use place-based programming to connect with learners via real-world problems in their environment.
Contact Dr.%20Rachel%20Gisewhite	Contact Dr.%20Rachel%20Gisewhite or Dr.%20Kendrick%20Buford
EJSLA	S3

Center-Sponsored STEM Competitions

Contact: Dr.%20Allison%20Downing	Contact: Susan%20Stachowski
The Mississippi Science Olympiad (MSO) is devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers.	Region I Science Fair counties: Adams, Amite, Clarke, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, Green, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lamar, Lawrence, Lincoln, Marion, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Simpson, Smith, Walthall, Wayne, and Wilkinson. Region VI counties: George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, and Stone.
Mississippi Science Olympiad	Region I & VI Science Fairs