With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, the University of Arizona South/Cochise College Noyce Border Scholars project will recruit 36 recent undergraduates in STEM disciplines and 18 STEM professionals, and prepare them to become secondary and middle-school STEM teachers. In this project, the University of Arizona South (UAS) will be collaborating with 13 high-need school districts along the Arizona-Mexico border. The total student population is 35,000 in these districts. Utilizing such innovative professional development pathways as field experiences at University of Arizona's Biosphere 2, Math Teacher's Circles, and monthly Teacher Education Seminars, the project will improve STEM education within underserved border school districts and will provide insights that may be extended to similar border and rural settings around the nation. Scholars will receive the support of university coaches to provide guidance and support. The Noyce Border Scholars project will increase the number of highly qualified STEM teachers in border schools, with an emphasis on underrepresented minority teachers, encourage more STEM professionals to enter the profession, provide targeted teacher preparation through a redesigned Intern Certification track of the UAS M.Ed. program, support new teachers throughout a two-year induction period, with high quality professional development in STEM, and contribute to the body of research on innovation in teacher education. With its focus on culturally relevant professional development in support of culturally relevant teaching, the project will further develop the field of context-specific teacher education for STEM teachers in rural and border schools, address the critical shortage of STEM teachers in border area schools, advance knowledge through context-specific teacher education, and help to build the infrastructure of border schools to recruit and retain ethnically diverse and culturally competent STEM teachers. The project's emphasis on integrating research and education, backed with culturally competent pedagogy, will provide communities with teachers armed with the skills to impart the appreciation of STEM to their students. Societal benefits will include advancing student potential in a region characterized by poverty, a prevalence of English learners, and low educational achievement levels. Findings will be disseminated in publications and presentations reaching STEM educators in other underserved regions, and curricula and techniques will be shared with other professionals in teacher education programs, especially those that serve border and rural school districts. The project's intellectual merits will build on the successful teacher preparation program of the University of Arizona South's Transition to Teaching program. Throughout the life of the project, Noyce Border Scholars will report increased STEM content knowledge, increased knowledge and skills related to teaching in a multicultural environment, and increased STEM teaching self-efficacy, thereby improving the teaching environment in the culturally varied, economically challenged areas served by partner school districts.