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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Activity Types
Program Components
Target Audience
- College/University Staff 11 matches
- English Language Learners 4 matches
- First Generation College Students 18 matches
- First-year College Students 17 matches
- Graduate Students 10 matches
- In-Service K12 Teachers 5 matches
- Institution Administration 15 matches
- K12 Students 6 matches
- Non-tenure Track Faculty 16 matches
- Post-doctoral Fellows 4 matches
- Pre-Service K12 Teachers 5 matches
- Teaching/Learning Assistants 6 matches
- Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty 23 matches
- Transfer Students 9 matches
- Undergraduate Majors 24 matches
- Undergraduate Non-Majors 15 matches
- Underrepresented Minority Students 20 matches
Point of Intervention
Results 1 - 10 of 42 matches
UC Davis Bridge to the Doctorate Program
Travis York, APLU
The UC Davis Bridge to the Doctorate program is funded by the National Science Foundation's Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP). The LSAMP program assists universities and colleges in their efforts to significantly increase the numbers of students matriculating into and successfully completing high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in order to diversify the STEM workforce. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming STEM education through innovative, evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies, and relevant educational experiences in support of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders.
Program Components: Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Tutoring, Learning Communities, Academic Support, Scholarships, Grants, Workstudy, Outreach:Public Outreach
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, Undergraduate Majors, Graduate Students, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
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.
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, Undergraduate Majors, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
Windows on the Inquiry Classroom
Christopher Bauer, University of New Hampshire-Main Campus
The project is a comprehensive documentation of an inquiry-based course, a college-level interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of heat, temperature, and energy (Fire and Ice). The door to this classroom is open for observations at any time for teachers, teacher educators, professional developers, researchers, and science learners. The entire course is available at the University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository: https://scholars.unh.edu/bauer. All 27 class sessions are captured in 10-minute video segments from four angles, including instructor and student teams. All course documents are also available: daily agenda, student team instructions and work products, and hands-on activity procedures. There are behind-the-curtain stories as well: instructor previews and debriefing for each class, graduate interns reviewing every class, student focus groups, and videos about course design process.
Program Components: Professional Development:Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Student Assessment, Course Evaluation, Supporting Students:Student Engagement
Target Audience: Pre-Service K12 Teachers, In-Service K12 Teachers, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Teaching/Learning Assistants, Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows
Point of Intervention: College/School
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.
Program Components: Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Learning Communities, Academic Support
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Majors, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research
Travis York, APLU
LAUNCH is an acronym that stands for Learning Communities (L), Academic Excellence (A), Undergraduate Research (U), National Fellowships (N), Capstones (C), and Honors (H). LAUNCH is a unit of Undergraduate Studies housed in Academic Affairs under the Provost at Texas A&M University. LAUNCH: UGR promotes, coordinates, creates, and assesses undergraduate programs involving creative scholarship, inquiry, and research in all academic disciplines at Texas A&M. The programs serves as an introduction for first generation, low income, and/or under-represented students in STEM research through first year research teams, summer research programs, research presentations, and research and graduate program informationals.
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Majors, Transfer Students, Graduate Students, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA)
Travis York, APLU
The Health Sciences & Technology Academy increases the number of African American and other underrepresented students in West Virginia who pursue degrees in health sciences and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, thereby increasing the number of health practitioners and advocates in the medically undeserved communities of West Virginia. HSTA helps West Virginia high school students succeed in health care and other STEM-based undergraduate and graduate degree programs. We marshal the efforts of hundreds of mentors―teachers, community members, and higher-education faculty, staff, and students―to create a framework that supports children facing social and financial challenges in obtaining a diploma and furthering their education.
Program Components: Professional Development:Pedagogical Training, Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Bootcamp, Student Engagement, Internships, Professional Preparation
Target Audience: K12 Students
NM EPSCoR Early Career Leadership Workshop
Travis York, APLU
The New Mexico EPSCoR Post Doc Leadership Workshop is an innovative 3-day intensive, residential program designed to enhance the professional skills of post-doctoral scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The workshop uses interactive approaches to develop leadership skills that contribute to post doc career development and success.
Program Components: Professional Development:Advising and Mentoring, Diversity/Inclusion, Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Professional Preparation
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows
Point of Intervention: Institution
Communities of practice for engaging faculty in STEM course reform
Laura Hahn, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
At large research-intensive universities, teaching STEM at scale has posed instructional challenges to faculty who are unaccustomed to addressing pedagogy in a collective, sustainable manner. At our institution, through strategic implementation of communities of practice, we are beginning to integrate the qualities of a strong, collaborative research culture into the context of teaching.
Program Components: Professional Development:Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Undergraduate Research
Target Audience: College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Undergraduate Majors
Point of Intervention: College/School
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
UA-AAU STEM Collaborative Learning Spaces Project
Lisa Elfring, University of Arizona
The Collaborative Learning Spaces Project (CLSP), an extension of the UA AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Project, is a university-wide collaborative effort at the University of Arizona to develop classroom environments that are more suitable for active learning pedagogies than traditional lecture halls. Instructors and their teaching teams who are using these rooms receive training and participate in faculty learning communities (FLCs) to explore best practices and innovative ideas for use of these spaces.
Program Components: Professional Development:Accessibility, Diversity/Inclusion, Pedagogical Training, Student Assessment, Course Evaluation, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Physical Infrastructure, Supporting Students:Student Engagement
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, English Language Learners, Pre-Service K12 Teachers, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Majors, Transfer Students, Teaching/Learning Assistants, Graduate Students, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
Institutional Impact of Scaling-up Course-Embedded Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)
Judy Awong-Taylor, Georgia Gwinnett College
Georgia Gwinnett College was established in 2006 as a public liberal arts institution with a mission to provide open access to all high school graduates regardless of SAT scores. In 2011, The School of Science and Technology (SST) implemented a program for enhancing student engagement and learning in all STEM disciplines. GGC's Four-year Undergraduate Research and Creative Experience (4YrURCE) program is based upon a discipline-specific course-embedded research model which scaffolds multiple research and creative experiences for all STEM majors during all four years of matriculation. To date, 54 courses have been re-designed as CUREs and over 3,000 students (unduplicated count) are impacted annually. Longitudinal program-level assessment data includes student performance, student attitudinal, and faculty attitudinal data gathered over the past five years of the initiative.
Program Components: Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Student Assessment, Course Evaluation, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Evaluating Teaching, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Supporting Students:Tutoring, Student Engagement, Undergraduate Research
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Undergraduate Majors, First Generation College Students
Point of Intervention: College/School
Institution Type: Baccalaureate Colleges

