STEM Education Innovation Programs

Submit a Program Description » The goal of this database is to serve as a searchable collection of effective practices and programs that support improving undergraduate STEM education. Use the text search and the boxes at the right to narrow the collection based on particular aspects that you are interested in.

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Results 1 - 10 of 40 matches

Engineering Career Awareness Program (ECAP)
Travis York, APLU

Program Components: Outreach:Student Recruiting, Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Bridge Program, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Supporting Students:Tutoring, Learning Communities, Academic Support, Undergraduate Research, Scholarships, Grants, Workstudy
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, K12 Students, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: College/School
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity

STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT)
Laura Frost, Florida Gulf Coast University
A multidisciplinary STEM faculty professional development program called STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT) is completing its second year at Florida Gulf Coast University. SPARCT includes a 36-hour summer STEM academy and a commitment to a faculty learning community during the subsequent academic year. We chronicled faculty development progress through video interviews with participants, student retention, interest, and confidence in SPARCT participant classes, and faculty feedback on programming.

Activity Types: Teaching Circles/Learning Communities, Workshops
Program Components: Professional Development:Advising and Mentoring, Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Outreach:Inter-Institutional Collaboration
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Master's Colleges and Universities

Water Network for Team STEM (WaNTS)
Travis York, APLU
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), working with multiple partner agencies in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and in Pohnpei (PNI) State of the Federated States of Micronesia, two rural and remote jurisdictions of the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), proposes a two-year Design and Development Launch Pilot, Water Network for Team STEM, (WaNTS). WaNTS will nurture greater participation of Indigenous Pacific Islanders in STEM fields, facilitated by a collective impact model that employs the locally meaningful topic of clean drinking water as a vehicle for both K–12 engagement and broader community organization and action. Intergenerational and cross-jurisdiction networking will meld Western STEM with local ecological knowledge, empowering Inclusive Informal Science Learning Teams (IISLTs), Advisory Groups, and multiple, local, school-based Water Quality Management Teams (WQMTs), impacting thousands of residents. A repository of locally applicable educational materials will be created, maintained, and disseminated.

Activity Types: Workshops, Conferences
Program Components: Supporting Students:Learning Communities
Target Audience: Transfer Students, First Generation College Students, Undergraduate Majors, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Underrepresented Minority Students, K12 Students, First-year College Students
Point of Intervention: Multiple Institutions

Teaching Quality Framework Initiative
Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado at Boulder
This effort provides framework for supporting and assessing teaching quality across all departments on a campus (i.e. a Teaching Quality Framework, or TQF). The TQF has two essential elements: (1) categories that define teaching as a scholarly activity, and (2) a change process for implementation. To assess teaching quality, we draw on three perspectives--faculty members, their students, and their peers--as sources of data. The TQF scholarly categories are held constant across departments, but each department contextualizes them according to the specifics of their discipline. The implementation strategy is grounded in theories of organizational change and is designed to lead to campus-wide adoption. This strategy is not a top-down mandate; it focuses on bringing together key faculty leaders and departments and providing them with a structure to co-create, test, and evaluate an assessment system in the context that makes the most sense to them.

Activity Types: Teaching Circles/Learning Communities
Program Components: Professional Development:Course Evaluation, Student Assessment, Institutional Systems:Personnel/Hiring, Incentive/Reward Systems, Evaluating Promotion and Tenure, Evaluating Teaching
Target Audience: College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity

Developing and implementing institution data dashboards to drive course transformation
Shanna Shaked, University of California-Los Angeles
We are working with institutional research folks, deans and other interested faculty to develop and implement institutional data dashboards that can be used to foster conversations and interventions to improve teaching.

Activity Types: Teaching Circles/Learning Communities, Workshops
Program Components: Professional Development:Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Professional Development:Student Assessment
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Course
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity

Creative Scientific Inquiry Experiences
Ellene Tratras Contis, Eastern Michigan University
The Creative Scientific Inquiry Experience (CSIE) is a STEM-related program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that connects students with faculty and with community projects through an integrated science curriculum. We specialize in creating learning experiences for students in STEM fields through innovative courses and student events. Our courses are 1-2 credit hours, and faculty work with community partners to develop coursework that allows students to work on real-world problems.

Activity Types: Workshops, Conferences, Teaching Circles/Learning Communities
Program Components: Outreach:Student Recruiting, Presentations/Talks, Professional Development:Student Assessment, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Professional Development:Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Advising and Mentoring, Diversity/Inclusion, Institutional Systems:Interdepartmental Collaboration, Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Outreach:Informal Education, Marketing Campaign, Supporting Students:Clubs/Social Activities, Student Engagement, Tutoring, Bootcamp, Outreach:Inter-Institutional Collaboration
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Underrepresented Minority Students, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, First Generation College Students, Undergraduate Majors
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Moderate Research Activity

CCHF Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Program (CSURP)
Travis York, APLU
CSURP is a program for undergraduate students, majoring in chemistry or chemical engineering, interested in conducting supervised summer research. The program is supported by the Center for Selective C-H Functionalization (CCHF), which is a network of 23 academic and industrial research laboratories at 15 partner institutions throughout the country. The CCHF is one of eight National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Centers for Chemical Innovation.

Program Components: Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Undergraduate Research, Professional Preparation, Scholarships, Grants, Workstudy, Mentoring Program
Target Audience: First Generation College Students, Undergraduate Majors, Underrepresented Minority Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department

Science Education Initiative
Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Science Education Initiative (SEI) was a transformative initiative aimed at changing STEM teaching practices in university settings. The SEI was successfully implemented in two institutions (University of Colorado Boulder and The University of British Columbia) over a period of 10 years. The SEI centered on department-based Discipline-Based Education Specialists (DBESs), disciplinary experts with training in the science of teaching and learning who serve as catalysts of change within departments. The two SEIs have influenced the teaching of hundreds of faculty and the learning of tens of thousands of students per year by promoting the use of evidence-based teaching practices in STEM. These teaching practices are informed by research on teaching and learning, and often include some element of active learning. The lessons learned from the SEI are included in the Science Education Initiative Handbook, linked in this listing.

Program Components: Supporting Students:Quantitative Skills, Professional Development:Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Student Assessment, Course Evaluation, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Personnel/Hiring, Supporting Students:Student Engagement
Target Audience: Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Majors, Post-doctoral Fellows, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity

Teaching Rubric for Tenure Process
Chad Brassil, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Developed a teaching rubric as a faculty in order to reduce variance among tenure cases.

Program Components: Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Evaluating Promotion and Tenure, Evaluating Teaching
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity

Purpose + Reach = Individuals Measured for Excellence (PRIME) STEM Project
Travis York, APLU
PRIME STEM/Student Support Services is a federally-funded TRiO program (U.S. Department of Education). The program supports college students pursuing STEM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) who are first-generation, demonstrate a financial need, and/or have a documented disability.

Activity Types: Teaching Circles/Learning Communities
Program Components: Supporting Students:Learning Communities, Academic Support, Mentoring Program
Target Audience: First Generation College Students, Undergraduate Majors, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Underrepresented Minority Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department