In Support of Mobilizing STEM Education for a Sustainable Future

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Assessment / Research (91) Social Sciences - Other (89) Interdisciplinary (99) This project is a modest yet important expansion of an ongoing project to create a team of "Critical Advisors" to formulate a new framework for improving postsecondary resources to meet global challenges (DUE-0744106). The immediate goal of both the predecessor project and this project is to articulate explicit and new theory by which to leverage change in institutions of higher education such that they take up and use existing evidence-based knowledge and resources for STEM education. A longer term goal is to translate new theory for leveraging change in higher education into strategies for action that will mobilize and coordinate the efforts of STEM researchers, educators, and organizations already seeking to improve quality and access in postsecondary STEM education; and also enable and sustain the collaborative contributions of this STEM education reform community. An ancillary goal is to successfully encourage institutions of higher education and STEM departments to rebalance their values and reward systems to more readily recognize and enable teaching as a valued professional role for current and future STEM faculty, as a form of scholarship, and as a respected career path at the K-12 level for STEM undergraduates. This project enlarges the group of critical advisors. During its first year of work, the earlier project discovered through careful analysis of critical knowledge and skills that it needed to enlarge the planned size of this group by 25 percent. The combined project is now known as the "Mobilizing STEM Education for a Sustainable Future" project. The project focuses on postsecondary institutions, which are critical in developing these capacities because they educate natural and computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, and also K-12 teachers, policymakers, and workers in business and industry. After they are successfully recruited, the subsequent analyses, creative thinking, and recommendations of the critical advisors will be synthesized and distributed to the STEM higher education community. The scope of work entails: (1) participation in two workshops planned and executed by the National Research Council, described in a companion grant proposal; (2) preparation for and participation in two CA meetings as part of this project; (3) synthesis of ideas and recommendations offered at the two CA meetings; and (4) preparation, presentation, and distribution of a final National Endeavor Team report that integrates the synthesis of the CA meetings with the outcomes from the NRC workshops.