Creating and Studying a National Network of Centers of STEM Education: Developing Foundational Infrastructure for Educational Transformation

Association Of Public And Land-Grant Universities, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This project is a joint effort by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the University of Colorado - Boulder, the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. It will focus on two related threads of activities: 1) Studying the nature and capacity of college and university STEM Education Centers individually, including their relationships with campus centers for teaching and learning (CTLs), and 2) Building a national network of campus-based STEM Education Centers. The overarching goal is to develop a national community of 150 or more affiliated STEM centers that operate as a network in a self-sustaining fashion. The network will be led by the PIs supported by an active steering committee that will oversee its development. Activities to be supported by the network will be annual meetings and the creation of an online resource site to facilitate the operations of mature centers and nascent centers. Participants in annual meetings will pay registration fees to initiate the process of becoming a self-sustaining network. Overall this is a four-year project of studying and seeding the network and associated centers. Through these activities the network will provide a new national resource that will support both established and nascent member centers and provide a new platform for systemic transformation of undergraduate STEM education. The research aspect of this project will use a mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection) approach, including a detailed examination of the cultural and functional situations of STEM education centers on their campuses. It will categorize the types of work that the centers do, and identify the programmatic and cultural challenges that STEM education centers are particularly well-positioned to undertake. Initial research on the network will explore the design and facilitation of learning networks and then apply this understanding to promote those sustaining and scaling innovations that transform undergraduate STEM education. The research will also examine how the network supports individual and social learning as well as facilitating institutional change.