RCN-UBE: Sustainable, Transformative Engagement across a Multi-Institution and Multidisciplinary STEM Network

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This project aims to serve the national interest by providing new opportunities for faculty members to transform undergraduate biology education. A group of institutions (the “Network”) on New York’s Long Island seeks to show that multiple levels of transformation can occur through collaborations among biology, chemistry, and math faculty at two- and four-year institutions. First, the Network’s focus on the first two years of undergraduate biology education will make a biology degree more attainable. Second, the multidisciplinary approach extends the of the project impacts to other STEM disciplines. And third, the multi-institution collaborations support student transfer from two- to four-year institutions. 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 Network will focus on the important and pivotal role faculty members play in restructuring undergraduate biology education.The Sustainable, Transformative, Engagement across a Multi-Institution and Multi-disciplinary STEM (STEM) Network is grounded in three theoretical frameworks to develop faculty as change agents: Communities of Transformation, Systems Design for Organizational Change, and Emergent Outcomes for the Diffusion of STEM Innovations. The Network’s structured group approach (i.e., interdisciplinary, and interinstitutional working groups, institutional groups, and whole Network) and work across multiple levels (individual classroom behaviors, curricular-level collaboration across disciplines and institutions, and institutionalization of innovations) create high potential to impact undergraduate biology education and advance knowledge about processes and structures that promote institutional transformation. The Network will be using quantitative and qualitative metrics to understand the critical elements of the Network and provide an iterative feedback and adjustment loop. The project benefits society by empowering faculty to transform current classroom and institutional structures to create a more equitable, inclusive STEM learning experience. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).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.