Seeking info on STEM education change projects!

published Oct 27, 2025 9:36am

For our new NSF-funded project (Collaborative Research: Characterizing the emerging field of departmental change and empowering an inclusive network of practitioners), we are seeking examples of projects that aim to improve STEM education through department-level, team-based work. Are there people in your department (or a group of departments) working together to make change within a group of courses, or develop program-level learning goals, or encourage the spread of evidence-based teaching practices, or understand student performance data? Have they worked together to make changes in faculty hiring, faculty evaluation, or student admissions? Have they worked together to strengthen academic support for STEM majors, catalyze a shift to a more inclusive departmental or classroom culture, or support the development of a more collegial, cooperative departmental workplace? If so, these are the kinds of projects that we are trying to find.


While we have combed the literature for these kinds of projects, we know that many departmental change projects are never published. That's why we are putting out this call for information, which will support us in describing how team-based departmental change is happening in higher education in the U.S.


Please fill out our brief survey to tell us more about any projects, past or present, aimed at supporting STEM education through department-level change at your institution! The survey should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.


Link to survey: https://col.st/L2FRK


Please feel free to forward the survey link to others who you know who have participated in department-level, team-based change work in STEM departments. Contact Courtney Ngai (courtney.ngai@colostate.edu) with any questions.