by Carol Sowers

The 22 students in a sixth-grade classroom at Keller Elementary School in Mesa were ordered not to tear immediately into the mini-Snickers bars on their desks.

Nathan R. Glover, 26, and Amanda Davis, 19, Earth Science majors at Arizona State University, told the students the chocolate bars could teach an important geology lesson.

Their assignment was to figure out what kind of rock the bar would be if it wasn't a hunk of tempting candy. Would it be metamorphic, layered rock; igneous, formed by molten or partially molten rock; or sedimentary, a mixture of sediments such as chalk, limestone, sandstone and shale?

Taufa Prescott, 11, snapped out the answer.

"It would be metamorphic," he said, "because it has layers of caramel, chocolate and peanuts."The class agreed.

That was clever," said Julie Luft of the Snickers- bar lesson.

Luft, who was observing Glover and Davis, is a professor of science education with ASU's Mary Lou Fulton College of Education. She also is co-founder of Explorations in Education, an 19-month-old program that introduces science and engineering majors to teaching techniques, and then sends them into fourth through sixth-grade classrooms to discover "what it means to be a science teacher."

The one-credit class held on Mondays was co-founded by Steve Semken, an assistant professor of Earth and Space Science, a geosciences educator and ethnogeologist.

Both Semken and Luft have taught the class, and continue to work with the students in the class. During the last year, they have been mentoring with graduate students (who will be faculty members) to teach this course. During this semester, Graduate Research Assistant Sissy Wong was in charge of working with Glover and Davis and other students in the class.

The explorations class is part of ASU's continuing push to have science, math, engineering, and technology students and professionals consider a career in science education. This class is structured to specifically find middle school and high school science teachers.

Those efforts have been rewarded with a $750,000 grant from the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, funded by the National Science Foundation. The prestigious scholarship is named for Robert Noyce, the so-called "Man Behind the Microchip," and giant of the high- tech industry.

The Noyce Science Teachers for Arizona – Recruitment and Retention (STARR) project is the result of a collaboration among educators and administrators at ASU West Campus, ASU, Polytechnic Campus and ASU Tempe Campus. In this project are scholarships, a recruitment course, and an induction program.

These scholarships are intended for committed science students or professionals who want to become secondary science teachers. The STARR Scholarships cover tuition and other expenses for students who commit to teach in high-need schools for at least two years following graduation.

Luft says that "students or professionals are often not thinking of teaching as a career." The explorations course is meant to introduce people to the profession. Luft adds "that once we recruit people to the field, the grant also provides needed support in the field of science." While an induction program in science doesn't ensure that teachers will stay in the classroom, it does improve their ability to teach science.

Often science teachers stay in education, she said, but they move on to textbook sales or museum work. These are important educational areas that are outside of classroom teaching.

Davis and Glover are eager to get into their own classrooms.

"I've always wanted to teach," said Davis, an ASU freshman credited by Glover for the Snickers idea.

Glover, formerly a biology major at Montana State University in Billings, sampled classroom teaching as a student teacher. But, when he heard about the Earth Science program at ASU he transferred, changed his major, and enrolled in the Explorations in Education course.

On a recent morning, Davis and Glover were in sixth-grade teacher James McKinley's class for the last time to teach their geology lesson."We're back and we're excited," Glover said. "We want to hear those ooohs and aaahs."

Arranged in small groups, the sixth-graders brought their own rocks, and set to work with tiny magnifying glasses to figure out their classifications.

"We aren't the rock experts," Davis said. "You are."

Many of the sixth-graders, who thought they would dread a geology class, were engrossed with their specimens."They are cool to look at," said Ashley Collins, 11.

"I didn't even know there were three types of rocks," said Jeremiah Calderon, who brought a sparkling crystal.

There was a hearty debate among the students and Glover over the gleaming rock's classification. With Glover's help, they pronounced it metamorphic.

"Sometimes it's really hard to tell," he told the students.

Charmaine Turner decided she "loved rocks" because she thought diamonds were in that category. Turns out diamonds are minerals. That didn't change her opinion of diamonds. And like the rest of the class, she described Glover and Davis as "awesome."

McKinley, the longtime classroom teacher, was glad to have Davis and Glover on board.

"They (Davis and Glover) work really well together and brought a lot of enthusiasm to the class," he said. "They have a lot of initiative and make class a lot of fun. And I can't believe they are so relaxed with the kids.''

Glover and Davis were among eight students in the fall 2008 explorations class who have a yen for teaching science.

Licia Bailey, 28, a senior from Sandy, Utah, is majoring in Organizational Studies. She hadn't considered teaching until she took the class. Her husband, an English teacher, told her the best way to test the waters is to "get into the classroom and teach." She said she was "surprisingly comfortable" there.

Thanks to the explorations class, Bailey said she didn't have to invest in "semesters of education classes to see a glimpse of what teaching is like."

Raymon Sherrill, 22, left Eastern Michigan University in August to attend ASU on the advice of friends.

"They told me the teachers at ASU were engaged with the students," he said.

A senior, he is majoring in Urban Studies and Geographic Information Systems, a field which focuses on analyzing and managing data linked to locations. For example, he said, manufacturers of hydrogen-fueled cars could use the technology to map locations for refueling stations.

Sherrill had not considered teaching, although his life had led him in that direction.

"I had been a tutor for many years in science and math from kindergarten through eighth grade," he said. "But I had never taught in a formal classroom."

He'll likely get that chance. Luft recruited him for this spring's explorations class.

He said he was also enticed by the Noyce scholarship.

With a $50,000 tab for student loans, he said, "I'll be in the front of the line for the scholarship."