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 Show all
Target Audience
- College/University Staff 9 matches
- English Language Learners 2 matches
- First Generation College Students 9 matches
- First-year College Students 12 matches
- Graduate Students 9 matches
- In-Service K12 Teachers 4 matches
- Institution Administration 11 matches
- K12 Students 5 matches
- Non-tenure Track Faculty 15 matches
- Post-doctoral Fellows 4 matches
- Pre-Service K12 Teachers 4 matches
- Teaching/Learning Assistants 5 matches
- Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty 19 matches
- Transfer Students 6 matches
- Undergraduate Majors 12 matches
- Undergraduate Non-Majors 9 matches
- Underrepresented Minority Students 10 matches
Point of Intervention
Results 11 - 20 of 26 matches
Early College High School and STEM Academy: Strategies for Breaking the Generational Poverty Cycle in Rural America
Gary E. Briers, Texas A & M University
School-wide Early College--for ALL high school students at Roscoe Collegiate ISD (RCISD)--and STEM Academy designation have led to four private-public partnerships in STEM-related enterprises. More than 90% of RCISD's seniors complete an associate of science degree at high school graduation. Simultaneously, students earn industry-recognized certification in STEM fields as FAA-licensed UAV pilots, veterinary assistants, health care workers, welders, and/or computer technicians/network administrators. Because students earn a college parallel associate degree (versus an associate of applied science"often considered a "terminal degree"), graduates can and do continue to matriculate into STEM majors for baccalaureate degrees. These results are in a public school district with fewer than 30 graduates annually in a rural community of fewer than 2,000 residents. Two additional goals remain to be achieved: 90% of those associate degree/high school diploma recipients will earn baccalaureate degrees and 90% of those will earn a graduate or professional degree.
Program Components: Professional Development:Advising and Mentoring, Pedagogical Training, Curriculum Development, Outreach:In-Service Teacher Training, Outreach to K12 Teachers and Students, Presentations/Talks
Target Audience: Pre-Service K12 Teachers, English Language Learners, In-Service K12 Teachers, Undergraduate Majors, First Generation College Students, Transfer Students, First-year College Students, Underrepresented Minority Students, K12 Students
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.
Program Components: Professional Development:Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Student Assessment, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Supporting Students:Student Engagement
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration
Point of Intervention: Course
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
Communities of practice for engaging faculty in STEM course reform
Laura Hahn, University of Illinois at 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, Supporting Students:Undergraduate Research, Student Engagement, Institutional Systems:Interdepartmental Collaboration
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Undergraduate Majors, Institution Administration, College/University Staff
Point of Intervention: College/School
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
Enabling Faculty to Adopt Deliberative Democracy Pedagogy: a tool to broaden and engage
Gwen Shusterman, Portland State University
This project has been focused on catalyzing pedagogical innovation in introductory science courses. In particular, structures have been put in place to facilitate the implementation of the model of Deliberative Democracy Pedagogy (DDP). DDP is an active learning strategy, based on deliberative democratic models of citizen engagement in science policymaking. This integrative pedagogical approach, revises the delivery of conventional introductory science content around modules that engage students with current science policy controversies. Teaching teams of faculty and graduate students have attended summer pedagogical workshops, developed curricular modules, implemented the modules and participated in regular Communities of Practice meetings.
Program Components: Professional Development:Student Assessment, Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Diversity/Inclusion, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Outreach:Outreach to K12 Teachers and Students, Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Outreach:Presentations/Talks, Supporting Students:Professional Preparation
Target Audience: Undergraduate Majors, First-year College Students, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Transfer Students, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Teaching/Learning Assistants, Underrepresented Minority Students, First Generation College Students, Graduate Students
Point of Intervention: Course
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Higher Research Activity
Faculty Study Circles
Bryan Dewsbury, Florida International University
In this program we engage faculty in small study circles (<8 members) of books on race and privilege as they pertain to higher education. Study circles meet for three individual sessions, and discuss various elements of the chosen book. Books chosen in the past include Whistling Vivaldi (Claude Steele), Blindspot (Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banjani) and the Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt). At the end of session three, the study circle identifies concrete changes the university community can engage in on issues relating to race and privilege, as suggested by the reading material.
Program Components: Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Accessibility, Cultural Competency
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
Departmental Action Teams (DATs)
Daniel Reinholz, San Diego State University
SITAR aims to improve undergraduate STEM education by professionalizing educational practice through measurement, assessment, and cultural change. We focus on department-wide change to achieve more coherent, long lasting reforms. Our project uses a three-layer approach: (1) We work with groups of faculty through Departmental Action Teams (DATs) to create sustainable mechanisms to address educational issues in an ongoing fashion (bottom up); (2) We apply targeted approaches to individual departments to stimulate cultural change (middle out); and (3) We work with the administration and faculty senate to promote and incentivize the use of evidence-based teaching practices (top down). We support these three layers with infrastructure provided by the AAU and our collaborations with our Office of Informational Technology (OIT) to develop and import technology for better utilizing already existing institutional student data.
Program Components: Professional Development:Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Student Assessment
Target Audience: Institution Administration, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Majors, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
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.
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
UA-AAU STEM Collaborative Learning Spaces Project
Lisa Elfring, The 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:Diversity/Inclusion, Accessibility, Pedagogical Training, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Institutional Systems:Physical Infrastructure, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Professional Development:Student Assessment, Course Evaluation
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff, First-year College Students, Undergraduate Majors, First Generation College Students, Graduate Students, Teaching/Learning Assistants, Transfer Students, Undergraduate Non-Majors, Pre-Service K12 Teachers, English Language Learners, Underrepresented Minority Students
Point of Intervention: Institution
Institution Type: Doctorate-granting Universities:Highest Research Activity
Active Learning Pedagogy Support: Disciplinary faculty learning communities supported by Learning Assistants
Charles De Leone, California State University-San Marcos
The Active Learning Pedagogy Support (ALPS) program supports faculty development, course transformation, and cross-campus coordination by creating discipline-based faculty learning communities and supporting them with Learning Assistants. Initiated at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) and Palomar Community College (Palomar), the project has supported ALPS cohorts in mathematics and chemistry. The ALPS program was developed as part of the NSF-funded STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) project "Increasing STEM Talent through Regional Partnerships, Recruiting, and Retention," DUE-1068477.
Program Components: Professional Development:Curriculum Development, Pedagogical Training, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Supporting Students:Academic Support, Outreach:Inter-Institutional Collaboration
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Teaching/Learning Assistants
Point of Intervention: Major/Department
Institution Type: Master's Colleges and Universities
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:Course Evaluation, Student Assessment, Pedagogical Training, Diversity/Inclusion, Curriculum Development, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Supporting Students:Undergraduate Research, Student Engagement, Tutoring, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Interdepartmental Collaboration
Target Audience: Underrepresented Minority Students, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Institution Administration, College/University Staff, Undergraduate Non-Majors, First-year College Students, First Generation College Students, Undergraduate Majors
Point of Intervention: College/School
Institution Type: Baccalaureate Colleges