Dec. 3 -- UC Berkeley officials announced that the campus has been awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Science and Math Initiative (NMSI) to further boost its efforts to prepare science and math teachers.

UC Berkeley and UC Irvine are among 12 universities chosen from a field of 50 across the country to receive NMSI funding for programs modeled after UTeach at the University of Texas at Austin. UTeach was developed in 1997 as a new, improved way to introduce undergraduate math and science majors to secondary school teaching.

The UTeach grants will provide critical support for UC's Cal Teach program, which launched in 2005 as a joint venture between the University of California and California State University systems, state government and industry leaders. Its goal is to help alleviate the state's shortage of science and math teachers.

Cal Teach, which just started its second full academic year at UC Berkeley this fall, so far has attracted about 200 students.

The National Math Science Initiative is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help the United States maintain its global leadership in technological innovation. ExxonMobil contributed an initial $125 million to the initiative's efforts. Additional donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

In addition to state funding, Cal Teach has received private support from corporations including Intel Corp. and AT&T Inc.

For more information about the program, read this story.