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AAU is committed to improving STEM education at research universities.
AAU leadership has committed to extend the initial five-year undergraduate STEM effort indefinitely by integrating continued support for undergraduate STEM education reform and improvement into its ongoing staffing structure and portfolio of work. AAU will also look to broaden its efforts to improve undergraduate instruction beyond STEM fields in the future.
- A major award provided an additional 24 AAU universities with institutional mini-grants to further advance and coordinate existing efforts aimed at improving undergraduate STEM teaching and learning.
- AAU actively engages a broader network of faculty members and administrators at AAU universities committed to improving undergraduate STEM teaching and learning. The AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Network has convened conferences annually to discuss innovative practices to improve STEM education and hosted a variety of targeted workshops to address critical issues. A workshop, convened by AAU, brought together STEM department chairs from AAU universities to share information about and discuss improving STEM teaching within their departments and recognizing and rewarding faculty members for the quality and effectiveness of their teaching. Moving forward AAU will convene the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Network and STEM Department Chairs on alternating years.
- AAU will continue to collaborate with other national associations, organizations, funders, and industry partners to coordinate activities relating to undergraduate STEM reform and to develop effective means to disseminate promising and effective programs, approaches, methods, and strategies. The Initiative is engaging multiple stakeholders to promote long-lasting reform to undergraduate STEM education and working to address the cultural and policy barriers within research universities that hamper educational improvement and innovation.
- In partnership with federal agencies, AAU is finding new ways to engage faculty members to broaden the impact of their research by becoming more innovative in the classroom, teaching more effectively, and providing for authentic research experiences to undergraduate students.
- An ongoing examination of how universities can successfully coordinate multiple undergraduate STEM education reforms to achieve sustainable change is underway. This project is designed in recognition of the reality that many AAU universities are advancing multiple department-level as well as institution-wide efforts to improve undergraduate STEM teaching and learning.