WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education

The WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education aspires to make WVU a national model of high quality STEM education, encouraging more students to, and retaining more students in, courses of study that will open doors to successful STEM careers, including STEM teaching.

West Virginia University
Established: May 2015

http://stemcenter.wvu.edu

Profile submitted by Gay B Stewart

Vision and Goals

Improving STEM education for the university and the state is one of WVU's five Mountains of Excellence supporting the university's strategic plan. With faculty working together from across the university in this trans-disciplinary effort, the WVU Center for STEM Education aspires to make WVU a national model of high quality STEM education, encouraging more students to, and retaining more students in, courses of study that will open doors to successful STEM careers. We also intend to impact science literacy so that more of our citizens can fully participate in today's democratic process. Preparing highly qualified first-year STEM high school teachers and working with them throughout their early careers, and providing rich professional development opportunities for in-service teachers are also high priority, as we seek to improve STEM education grades K-12, throughout the state, as well as for undergraduates and graduate students on our own campus and those of partnering institutions.

Center/Program Structure

The Center is an independent unit, operating with the support of all of the deans, the provost and the president. One senior faculty member is appointed 80% to administration of the Center (the Center Director), with two junior faculty members appointed 50% to a research mission that pursues the goals of the Center, Keri Valentine in the College of Education and Human Services, and Jessica Blythe in The Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resource and Design. Our lead faculty contact in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering, Assistant Dean Robin Hensel, is not appointed to the Center. One full-time faculty equivalent, Amanda Backus, has been added to the staff as a project coordinator to help support funding-seeking and project maintenance (shared with WVUteach). One staff social scientist, Lynnette Michaluk, is appointed in the Center to help improve STEM Education research efforts on campus. Other Center faculty include three Clinical Professors who serve as the WVUteach Master Teachers and a PhysTEC Teacher in Residence.

Description of Programming

We are currently in the grant-seeking process, and encouraging collaborations across the colleges of the more than 60 faculty at WVU who expressed an interest in being involved in this important area. The projects already active include WVU's UTeach replication, WVUteach, WVU's PhysTEC site, and an active K-12 STEM outreach program that currently works with the Boy Scouts of America to provide scientific programming at the national Jamborees held at the Summit, as well as the Science Behind Ziplines, the Science Behind Cycling, and Next Generation Forensic Science.

Successes and Impacts

We have managed to hire an incredible group of enthusiastic young faculty to help us achieve our vision and goals. We have already secured a UTeach replication grant, a PhysTEC implementation grant, and been chosen to host the Outreach efforts mentioned above. The Center is a new partner in the 100kin10 network, and West Virginia is the newest state in the STEMx network, with the Center serving as the organizing network in the state.

Elements Contributing to Success

The goals of the WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education are institutional and state priorities. There are dedicated faculty involved in almost every STEM department. Enthusiasm is high. Space and time are in short supply.

Supplemental Materials