FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Association of American Universities (AAU) announced today it is continuing its Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative past its original five-year duration. The AAU initiative, originally announced in September 2011, is aimed at increasing the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate STEM education at its 62 leading research universities.
“AAU’s STEM initiative has helped dozens of our universities create inclusive and engaging learning environments in introductory STEM courses,” said AAU president Mary Sue Coleman. “The initiative has generated great momentum and enthusiasm on our campuses for improving the quality of STEM teaching and learning, and we expect the effects to be lasting. We’re particularly excited at our universities’ success in addressing cultural barriers which have previously hampered reform.”
The White House today recognized AAU’s STEM education efforts, as well as those of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, as part of its Active Learning Day observance.
AAU also announced today that it has received a three-year, $690,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine the institutional landscape in which innovations to undergraduate STEM education take place, and to study how universities can successfully coordinate multiple undergraduate STEM education reforms to achieve sustainable change.
AAU will work with Dr. James Fairweather, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, and Dr. Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus, Center for Teaching and Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst, in using the grant to support university efforts. The grant was awarded by the NSF “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education” (IUSE) program in the Education and Human Resources Directorate.
Earlier this month, AAU announced a five-year, $1 million grant from the Northrop Grumman Foundation to expand and enhance the AAU STEM Education Network, a group of faculty members and administrators at AAU universities dedicated to improving undergraduate STEM teaching and learning at research universities. The AAU STEM network has become a major feature of the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative.