Improving the Learning Experience in Introductory STEM courses in a Large Research University

跨学科（99）这个项目建立在NSF（DUE-935426）项目的基础上，该项目导致了1996年在加州大学戴维斯分校创建和实施一个大型（超过1500名学生/年）改革的物理学导论课程。经验证据表明，学生的表现显着更高，在随后的课程，并在医学院入学考试（MCAT）的学生谁采取了改革后的物理课程相比，学生谁采取了以前提供的传统教授的物理课程或传统教授的物理课程在其他地方。10年前在这门物理课程中进行的各种改革，预见了最近几份关注本科STEM教育的NRC报告中所呼吁的内容。经历过这些教学改革的学生往往会更多地使用高阶认知思维过程，并变得更舒服。该项目将这些改革扩展到一些学生与改革后的物理课程同时学习的数学和化学课程的少数部分，并仔细研究了学习所有三门课程对这批学生的影响。预测的结果是，在所有数学和物理科学课程中经历类似改革教学的学生，在随后的课程中将比只经历一门改革课程的学生表现出更大的教学成绩。智力优势：该项目的创新之处在于：将物理学科的教学改革引入到其他学科的课程中（数学和化学）由相同的学生同时采取;创新正在引入，而不会对这些其他课程或在这些学科中提供大型入门课程的文化造成重大变化或中断;该项目聘用了研究生助教，他们承担了这些课程的大部分教学工作。 作为本项目重点的少量部分可以扩展到这些课程的所有部分，因此，如果成功，这些变化可以迅速制度化。教学助理发展计划已经到位，只需要修改。该项目将开始提供经验证据，证明使用研究生助理作为变革推动者的可行性，以及让学生在一些课程中经历教育改革的必要性，以便使这些改革有效。更广泛的影响：该项目解决了大型研究型大学教学改革工作提出的两个问题：如何将主动和互动的学习方法引入大班;当学生同时经历多门数学和科学课程的改革教学时，对学生在本科STEM教学中的学习有什么影响。

Interdisciplinary (99)This project builds on an NSF (DUE-935426) project that resulted in the creation and implementation of a large (more than1500 students/yr) reformed introductory physics course at the University of California, Davis in 1996. Empirical evidence shows that student performance is significantly higher in a subsequent course and on the medical college admissions test (MCAT) for students who took the reformed physics course compared to students who took the previously offered traditionally taught physics course or traditionally taught physics courses elsewhere. The kinds of reform made in this physics course 10 years ago anticipated what is now being called for in the several recent NRC reports focusing on undergraduate STEM education. Students who experience these kinds of instructional reform tend to make more use and become more comfortable using higher order cognitive thinking processes. This project extends these kinds of reform to a small number of sections of the math and chemistry courses that a number of students take simultaneously with the reformed physics course and closely examines the affect that taking all three courses has on this cohort of students. The predicted outcome is that the students who experience similar reformed instruction in all their math and physical science courses will show even greater instructional performance gains in subsequent courses than students who have experienced just one reformed course. Intellectual Merit: The innovative aspects of this project are: it takes instructional innovations used in one discipline, physics, and introduces these reforms into courses in other disciplines (math and chemistry) taken simultaneously by the same students; the innovations are being introduced without making significant changes or causing disruptions in these other courses or in the culture of delivering large introductory courses in these disciplines; the project engages the graduate student teaching assistants who do most of the teaching of these courses. The small number of sections that are the focus of this project can be expanded to all sections of these courses so, if successful, the changes can be quickly institutionalized. Teaching assistant development programs are already in place and need to be only modified. This project will begin to provide empirical evidence about the feasibility of using graduate assistants as agents of change as well as on the need to have students experience educational reform in a number of courses in order for these reforms to be effective. Broader Impact: This project addresses two questions posed by pedagogical reform efforts at large research universities: how to introduce active and interactive learning methods into large classes; and what is the effect on student learning in undergraduate STEM instruction when students experienced reformed instruction in multiple math and science courses simultaneously.