RCN-UBE Incubator: Creating a Multi-Institution and -Disciplinary STEM Network to Improve Undergraduate Biology Education

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The Sustainable, Transformative Engagement across a Multi-Institution/Multidisciplinary STEM, (STEM)^2 ("STEM-squared"), Network will be a regional group that aims to increase the academic success of biology majors including those who transition from community colleges to four-year institutions. The (STEM)^2 Network will bridge the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and math, as well as the barriers that exist between the participating two- and four-year institutions. The multidisciplinary nature of the Network's approach will extend its impact beyond biology, while the inclusion of public two-year and private four-year schools will ensure that outcomes are applicable across institution types. The network will be unique among the organizations that exist to support STEM education reform because 1) the focus will be on identifying areas for interdisciplinary curricular and educational collaborations; and 2) the multilevel approach will target individual classroom behaviors, curricular collaboration across disciplines, and institutionalization of innovations. As such, it will empower faculty to be change agents for STEM reform, creating new directions in research and education. It is anticipated that student academic success and retention will increase which, in turn, will help meet the need for a larger and more diverse STEM workforce.The (STEM)^2 Network will use a series of collaborative studio workshops to achieve the overarching goals of 1) promoting collaboration between regional public community colleges and four-year private institutions; 2) empowering faculty to create change beyond their classrooms; and 3) creating enduring pedagogical collaborations across STEM disciplines encountered by undergraduate biology majors. The theoretical foundations of the network include systems design for organizational change, an emergent outcomes model for diffusion of STEM innovations, and the principles underlying Communities of Transformation. Participants will align the guiding educational documents of the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and math to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration. They will directly enhance undergraduate biology education by developing institutional systems maps to strategically identify opportunities for sustainable change. The (STEM)^2 Network will contribute to knowledge generation by documenting the development of the network from an industrial/organizational psychology perspective and assessment of interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, institutional structures, and faculty attitudes to catalyze change in undergraduate biology education. Co-funding for this project is being provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program in recognition of the project's alignment with the overarching goals of the IUSE: EHR program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.