Merna Villarejo of UC-Davis reports that half of the participants go on to earn teaching credentials. Some schools, such as Reed College, find that students who simply volunteer in K-12 classrooms often find that they want to become teachers. Robert Kaplan reported that in this case, Reed's lack of an education department makes it easier to move students right into the classroom. Local schools eagerly welcome the students who possess needed training in inquiry, problem solving, and developing testable hypotheses. The University of Texas-Austin mails a letter to entering freshmen that express an interest in science, inviting them to try secondary teacher preparation in math and science through a program called Uteach.
Graduates earn a science degree and a teaching credential after four years.
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