Dr. Lara Gengarelly is a State Specialist with 91ÖÆƬ³§ Cooperative Extension in Science Literacy and an Affiliate Associate Professor with the Leitzel Center. Her focus is to strengthen partnerships and collaborations among 91ÖÆƬ³§ faculty and staff who work on enhancing K-12 STEM education, secure grant funding to support statewide STEM education initiatives, coordinate and direct STEM programs for youth and educators, and carry out applied research in the field of science education. This collaboration with 91ÖÆƬ³§ Cooperative Extension has resulted in several impactful outcomes. For example, the 91ÖÆƬ³§ STEM Education Learning Community (SELC) was founded and is co-led by Gengarelly and Ruth Varner. SELC currently has approximately 70 91ÖÆƬ³§ faculty and staff members and hosts approximately 4-5 events per year with a purpose of strengthening communication and collaboration among 91ÖÆƬ³§ faculty and staff involved in STEM education.
CREST (Culturally Responsive and Effective STEM Teaching) Program is a Noyce Scholarship Program funded by the National Science Foundation that brings together the 91ÖÆƬ³§ Education Department and other 91ÖÆƬ³§ programs offering STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to enhance the quantity and quality of STEM teachers in middle schools and high schools.
STEM Teachers' Collaborative
The collaboration is an interdisciplinary effort to strengthen the STEM pipeline, increasing K-12 teachers' expertise in computing, engineering and technology and extending the impact of excellent STEM teachers to more students throughout the state.
TRRE is a teacher preparation program combining an intensive 15-month 91ÖÆƬ³§ graduate M.Ed. degree program with a full-year teacher residency, a community based internship and new teacher mentor support. Meeting the need for rural high-need communities to place high-quality teachers in local schools, TRRE brings education home to improve the lives of NH citizens.
Teaching Residents are embedded in a local NH community where they live, learn, volunteer, and teach.​ Students enrolled in the TRRE program (known as Teaching Residents) earn an M.Ed. degree at the elementary or secondary level from the 91ÖÆƬ³§ leading to NH teacher certification with a focus on STEM in elementary education, secondary math or secondary science. There are financial incentives for accepted applicants.
91ÖÆƬ³§ Tech Camp is a set of summer programs for students entering grades 5 through 12 designed to increase STEM literacy. The programs engage young people in interactive, hands-on, problem solving activities in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 91ÖÆƬ³§ Tech Camp is offered by the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the 91ÖÆƬ³§ and makes available the benefits of the 91ÖÆƬ³§ research campus to the community-at-large. These programs are designed to immerse campers in the world of science, engineering and technology.
