Engineering

In 2014, the University of Michigan launched an NSF-funded program to reinvent introductory teaching and learning in the core STEM disciplines.  REBUILD (Researching Evidence-Based Undergraduate Instructional and Learning Developments) aimed to promote recruitment, retention, and academic excellence in STEM disciplines by catalyzing the use of evidence-based teaching methods and learning analytics.  Toward this end, REBUILD faculty and postdocs led reform efforts in traditionally lecture-based, high-enrollment courses and labs in Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Math, and Physics.

The  Integrated Teaching and Learning Program (ITL) is nationally recognized as an award-winning engineering education leader, this program supports hands-on engineering learning through an innovative environment where students integrate engineering theory with practice and learn through doing.

As a direct result of the AAU STEM Initiative, we have substantial evidence of institutional change occurring at Washington University. This includes the funding of a new initiative to continue increasing adoption of evidence-based pedagogies in STEM, as well as expansion and adoption of programs begun by the AAU Initiative.

As a direct result of the AAU STEM Initiative, we have implemented numerous professional development activities for our faculty. Professional development is being implemented in a multi-pronged fashion, and includes observation and feedback for faculty, and multiple professional development activities including multi-day summer institutes, a mentoring program, a community of practice, and a speaker series.

The primary focus is to implement and evaluate our multiple-strategy approach for incorporating active learning into lower-level STEM courses. The multiple-strategies approach allows instructors flexibility in integrating active learning into a framework that meshes with their approach to teaching and with the demands of their discipline and the academic department with which the instructor is affiliated.

To improve learning, the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh is introducing a flipped, or inverted, classroom model in which direct learning (lecture) takes place outside of class, while class time is used for active learning.

Seeking to raise the level of STEM literacy, the UKanTeach STEM Teacher Preparation Program provided a leverage point to address STEM literacy at multiple levels of formal schooling. Since UKanTeach students are regular undergraduate STEM discipline majors it became very important that CSTEM understand the major learning outcomes as they emerged with their majors.

UKanTeach supports effective STEM learning, effective communication about STEM, supports service learning, while exploring secondary mathematics and science teaching as an option at graduation. If you wish to be a better science communicator or teach secondary (grades 6-12) math or science, then UKanTeach can help.

This Engineering Summer Scholars program is designed to reduce attrition among incoming engineering freshmen by creating a small-campus feel. Scholars come to campus during the summer and take courses, including a projects course they take together. The program is designed to help them adjust to life as students, become familiar with campus, and form support groups before the fall influx of students.

The mission of an AAU-UCD partnership is to foster evidence-based, sustainable innovation in STEM instruction through development of cultures of data and evidence around instruction and learning that encourage experimentation, build urgency, and enable change.