Western NC Research Fellows Program
Appalachian GEAR UP has partnered with Society for Science to launch the Western North Carolina Research Fellows Program. This program will build a STEM educator community focused on increasing student pathways to authentic research opportunities among GEAR UP middle schools in western North Carolina. This year-long, cohort-based professional learning model facilitates peer-to-peer collaboration and collective problem solving, while empowering teachers to create effective, engaging STEM learning opportunities tailored to the needs and circumstances of their students. The program will increase opportunities for students to do authentic STEM research and to participate in science fair in western North Carolina and eventually build a robust and self-sustaining local STEM ecosystem in the region that is tied to and supported by the Society for Science’s national STEM research community.
Applications for Fellow and Lead Fellow are due September 5, 2025. Applications for the Research Ambassador are due September 3, 2025.
The Western North Carolina STEM Research Ambassador will be selected from individuals who are well-versed and embedded in the western North Carolina school community and able to assess the needs, preferences, and barriers to engagement of western NC educators. They will also have extensive experience with and knowledge of teaching STEM research design and supporting students in entering science fair competitions. They will provide strategic support in helping teachers augment existing STEM and research curricula with the Society for Science’s STEM outreach programs and student research competitions.
The western NC Research Ambassador and two Lead Fellows will support two Fellow cohorts of up to twenty western NC teachers in developing programming goals centered around expanding their content knowledge of research and experimental design, developing and implementing authentic research experiences with students, and building infrastructure to provide research opportunities for students in the future. The Ambassador will run a one-day workshop hosted in western North Carolina to launch the program that will be used to establish the Fellow cohorts and set individual goals for each Fellow for the year. Each cohort will be guided by a Lead Fellow who will coordinate logistics and programming for the cohort throughout the year and will in turn be supported by the Ambassador. The Ambassador and Lead Fellows will present about their cohort experience, outcomes and impact at the 2026 Academic Innovation Conference, or other related, local conference.
Project IMPACT
Project IMPACT is a research effort geared towards improving ACT scores across the GEAR UP districts. Beginning with the class of 2025, the ACT will again be required for admission to 4-year public universities. Also, scoring a 22 in Reading or Math helps incoming students clear an academic hurdle by helping them place out of remedial Math and English courses at 4-year and 2-year colleges.
Schools will employ the Project IMPACT intervention sequence during English 3 and Math 3 courses. Teachers will receive training and support in the execution of the intervention. GEAR UP hopes that the results of the intervention will be an improvement in student proficiency in Reading and Math in the 2025 standard state administration of the ACT.
Counselor Network
Counselors at rural secondary schools are often faced with a limited, and sometimes non-existent, peer group. They also struggle to find high-quality professional development due to geographic isolation and tiny budgets for professional counselor development in districts with a single, small high school. GEAR UP’s Counselor Network endeavors to connect isolated counselors across our ten districts with resources normally out of reach for single high-school districts. We have contracted with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) to provide training on the ASCA National Model for school counselors, and more importantly, connect counselors so they have a network of peers to collaborate with and lean on.
MATH I RipTide
Math 1 Research Innovation Program Tied to Innovative Design in Education (RIPTIDE) is a research study evaluating the impact of using instructional strategies such as station-based learning to address low-performing student outcomes in Mathematics. In partnership with Emerald Education, ninth grade teachers participate in a cohort experience that brings together face to face professional development, virtual coaching and asynchronous course structures that focus on the development of data-driven decision making, the exploration of learning modalities, blended learning models, as well as formal and informal assessment structures.
Global Leaders
An initiative through our Participate Learning partnership, teachers or schools participate in modules focused on identifying global issues and tackling them through the context of the classroom and community.