Megan Byers, a mechanical engineer-turned-educational technologist, never imagined her passion for teaching would lead her to develop InstructSTEM — an online professional development program and community of practice designed to equip STEM educators with evidence-based pedagogical strategies. Launched in early 2025, the platform aims to support high school and college-level STEM teaching and learning through practical tools, adaptive resources, and teacher-to-teacher collaboration.
Through a series of instructional modules, including adaptive practice activities and downloadable lesson planning templates, science and mathematics educators explore how people learn and how to design and deliver effective instruction. The program is complemented by a community of practice where educators can discuss STEM education, exchange feedback, and learn from one another and experts across various fields.
Byers, a 2023 graduate of the UNC School of Education’s Master of Arts in Educational Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship program, said the idea for InstructSTEM took shape through a series of course assignments, research opportunities, and faculty mentorship.
Byers came to Carolina after earning her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, then working in tech for two years. As an undergraduate and graduate student, Byers also held teaching and coaching roles, including tutoring chemistry students and leading supplemental instruction sessions — opportunities that revealed the rewards and challenges of teaching.
“Through some of those roles, I was also introduced to educational research and pedagogical strategies, and that fueled my desire to help make those tools more accessible to instructors,” Byers said. “I wanted to help bridge the gap between researchers, instructors, and students — to create something that supports all three. Studying mechanical engineering while taking on teaching roles gave me a unique perspective on both sides of the learning experience.”
Byers said she was drawn to the MEITE program because of its blend of rigorous curriculum and the immersive internship that provided the environment needed to synthesize her technology background with educational research.
In the MEITE program, Byers interned at MetaMetrics Inc. in a product management role. There, she conducted a comprehensive user research study to understand educators’ needs, motivations, and challenges — insights that helped her design training and marketing materials to drive the adoption of MetaMetrics’ professional development materials for educators.
“My internship at MetaMetrics profoundly influenced my work by instilling a user-centric approach to product development, grounded in comprehensive user research,” Byers said. “This invaluable hands-on experience in translating complex user data into actionable training and marketing strategies is an approach I consistently apply in all my professional ventures.”
Byers currently balances her work to grow InstructSTEM with a full-time role as a senior content specialist at Kaplan Inc., an international educational services company. At Kaplan, she applies the user-centered innovation mindset she honed during MEITE to optimize content development.
“If you had asked me before the MEITE program whether I’d ever start a business, I would’ve said no,” Byers said. “I didn’t think I had creative enough ideas or even the business knowledge to do so. But from the very first week of the program, we were encouraged to explore our interests and turn them into real projects. That push made all the difference.”
From pilot project to impact
Across her MEITE experience, Byers developed InstructSTEM over time, continuously iterating and refining her ideas through class projects. From modeling adaptive features in a course with Matt Bernacki, Ph.D., Kinnard White Faculty Scholar in Education and her thesis advisor, to building an early business model in a seminar led by Todd Cherner, Ph.D, MEITE program director, each experience provided new perspectives on how to create a novel platform that supports both educators and learners.
Byers also led a pilot study of InstructSTEM during the MEITE program in collaboration with UNC’s Future Science Educators program, facilitated through the UNC Training Initiatives in Biomedical and Biological Sciences, with the pilot providing insight into how doctoral students and postdocs engaged with and found value in the platform in real time.
Today, InstructSTEM is not just a course — it’s a growing community. Byers said she envisions it as a central hub where educators can access practical tools, stay up to date with research, and tailor evidence-based strategies to their classrooms.
“InstructSTEM focuses its users and community members on the three most important questions we try to answer in educational research: (1) what works, (2) for whom, and (3) under what conditions,” said Bernacki, who noted Byers’s dedication to grounding InstructSTEM in learning theory. “Megan’s work in InstructSTEM is everything I hope MEITE graduates will bring to their innovations and products. She found ways to make the most of course assignments that challenged her to dig deep into educational theories and chose group projects that could deepen her thinking and give her opportunities to put her insights into products.”
Byers continues to explore ways to expand the platform’s offerings and build tools that further reduce the gap between teaching and learning in STEM fields.
“More than anything, MEITE helped me believe in my ability to turn ideas into solutions,” Byers said.
Discover more about InstructSTEM here.
The information and views presented in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Kaplan.