Initial Publication Date: July 18, 2013

Ingenuity Center

Promoting P_16 STEM STEM Education

Office of Sponsored Research, The University of Texas at Tyler
Established: 1995

Profile submitted by Michael Odell

Vision and Goals

The Ingenuity Center (formerly the East Texas STEM Center) is a component of the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (T-STEM) Initiative designed to build on national, state and local efforts to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement among Texas students. The Ingenuity Center focuses on increasing the number of students who study and enter science, technology, engineering, and math career pipeline by providing programs to teachers and students.

The Mission of the Ingenuity Center is to ultimately prepare students to be "STEM College Ready" by improving the STEM preparation of teachers through research, professional development, curriculum development, and technical assistance.

The Ingenuity Center utilizes a four-pronged strategy to address the quality and quantity of STEM teachers in Texas.

Preparing College and Workforce Ready students
Supporting STEM teachers and students
Address the quality of the current STEM teaching force
Preparing more qualified STEM teachers into the pipeline

The Ingenuity Center also provides a number of services to schools and education institutions across Texas and throughout the nation. The center employs a dynamic staff that can provide technical assistance, content and pedagogical content coaching, program evaluation services, grant writing assistance, vertical alignment assistance to meet College Readiness Standards, development of professional learning communities, school restructuring, and professional development programs live and online.

Center/Program Structure

The Ingenuity Center is an independent unit or what is called an Organized Research Unit at UT Tyler. It is the largest employer at the University of Texas at Tyler with 104 full time staff, 400 part time staff, and 200 students working on center initiatives. We employ researchers, buy out faculty members for a portion of their time, teachers, etc. We have an annual operating budget of $11 million which is a combination of hard, soft, and revenue generating programs. We have also commercialized some IP that is generating some revenue.

Description of Programming

The Ingenuity Center utilizes a four-pronged strategy to address the quality and quantity of STEM teachers in Texas.

Preparing College and Workforce Ready students
Supporting STEM teachers and students
Address the quality of the current STEM teaching force
Preparing more qualified STEM teachers into the pipeline

Managing charter schools (Innovation Academy),
Texas Project Lead the Way (PLTW),
University Academy (Texas 21st After School Program),
T-STEM Ininitiatve
Dual Credit Programs

We currently manage grants in excess of $20 million.

Successes and Impacts

We are the largest T-STEM Center in Texas. We have won awards for our after school programming. We have also published research on our approaches to STEM education, Charter School Model and Professional Development Models.

Elements Contributing to Success

The Ingenuity Center is an Organized Research Unit that has full support of the administration and a presence on the President's Cabinet.
UT Tyler values STEM and STEM education as a campus-wide priority.
The center was establisd in 2005 and accounts for almost 50% of external grants on campus.
We dont have a long history as a center or a university which has been a positive as we do not have to navigate turf that was established decades ago like at many universities.