New Purdue teacher certification program dovetails with STEM degrees

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Through Purdue’s new SPRINT Program — STEM Pedagogy Resulting in New Teachers — undergraduates and eligible alumni will now be able to add a teaching credential to their degree with the simple addition of nine credits of study. Upon completion of SPRINT, graduates will be eligible to take a licensure exam and then to teach STEM subjects from grades 5-12 anywhere in Indiana.

Announced by Purdue’s Board of Trustees in August, SPRINT is now live and all 32,000-plus eligible current students are being given enrollment information by their advisors. Interested students, parents and alumni are invited to contact Purdue’s College of Science directly for information at scienceadvising@purdue.edu.

“Recognizing that Purdue is a primary source of workforce-ready STEM graduates for our state, it’s imperative that we do our part to help address ongoing teacher shortages in rural and urban areas alike,” said Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe. “A decade ago, just over half of our students graduated with a STEM degree. That proportion is now up to nearly three-quarters, and so the opportunity for us to supply Indiana with high-quality, classroom-ready teachers has never been greater.”

The first program of its kind in the state, SPRINT is made possible by Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 255, which streamlines the licensing requirements for middle- and high-school teachers in STEM, focusing on high-impact teaching practices and job shadowing with seasoned teachers in response to the long-standing and acute shortage of STEM teachers across the state.

“Along with our education colleagues across campus, we’re excited to build this new Purdue STEM teaching certificate to give so many students a pathway to pursue meaningful careers in education,” said Lucy Flesch, Purdue’s Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College Science. “By aligning closely with new Indiana teacher licensure legislation, this certificate helps prepare our students to share their STEM expertise in Indiana classrooms while still engaging in research and other opportunities and graduating on time.”

The first step toward earning the SPRINT teaching credential is to take SCI 30100 (STEM Teaching Exploration), a new one-credit-hour course offered every semester from Spring 2026 onward. This course is then the first of nine credits students needed to obtain a STEM teaching certificate. Students can expect to learn how to:

• Practice effective teaching using proven, research-based models
• Elicit students’ ideas in STEM through purposeful questioning, writing and discussion
• Design and deliver microlessons that require active learning
• Evaluate teaching methodologies and when they work best
• Integrate technology to support inquiry-based, student-centered learning
• Explore STEM education careers across industry training, formal classrooms and informal learning settings

Later in the nine-credit certificate sequence, a variety of teaching experiences are possible, including experience as a teaching assistant at Purdue; substitute teaching during semester breaks or summers; and a host of other possibilities.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.