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NSF PR 97-51 - August 18, 1997
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NSF Awards Recognize Comprehensive Reform of Undergraduate
Education
University of California-Irvine leaders have decided
that their existing mathematics and science curriculums
are no longer adequate to prepare students to meet
the needs of modern society.
From that seemingly simple and straightforward proposition,
U.C.-Irvine is about to embark on an ambitious strategy
to modernize its teaching. The university will infuse
technology into all teaching, forging partnerships
with professional associations, and create a series
of interdisciplinary curricula.
These ground-breaking changes and institutional commitment
led the National Science Foundation to include U.C.-Irvine
among 19 colleges and universities to receive monetary
awards in the second year of the agency's Institution-Wide
Reform of Undergraduate Education (IR) initiative.
"U.C.-Irvine has made the kind of commitment to comprehensively
restructure, not merely tinker, at the margins of
reform, which is what the IR initiative is about,"
said Luther S. Wiliams, who heads NSF's education
and human resources directorate.
The UC-Irvine initiative is among many of the progressive
changes being made by two and four-year institutions
that NSF is recognizing through awards of up to $200,000
in the second year of the IR initiative.
Florida A&M University, for example, is an awardee
for developing a multidisciplinary science course
for non-science majors and creating a faculty professional
development initiative that emphasizes effective use
of technology.
At Millikin University, a small school in Decatur,
Ill., introductory science courses and related labs
will link the study of biology, chemistry, physics
and mathematics to other scientific and technological
disciplines. The school will also require students
to teach a class in local K-12 schools.
"The problems of the future will be very complex and
they will require interdisciplinary approaches and
solutions," Norman Fortenberry, who heads NSF's division
of undergraduate education, points out. "At too many
institutions, there is not a mechanism for faculty
to work with their counterparts in other disciplines,
nor to team-teach across disciplines."
NSF launched the IR initiative in 1996 to reward institutions
that have made significant improvements in the quality
of undergraduate education and are now prepared to
introduce sweeping changes to extend those innovations
to benefit all students. The changes reflect the institutions'
response to the new demands faced by undergraduates
to succeed in a highly technological society.
Williams said the IR initiative addresses serious
national deficiencies in undergraduate education that
were highlighted in a report, "Shaping
the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education
in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology."
NSF published the report last summer.
The IR awards complement another NSF initiative, the
Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research
and Education (RAIRE), which provided $500,000
grants to 10 research-intensive universities for their
commitments to blending their research and education
programs. RAIRE recognizes the prior achievements
of large research universities, says Williams, while
the IR intiative is open to all institutions that
enroll undergraduate students and focuses on planned
new programs to improve education in math, science
and engineering.
Awards for Institution-wide Reform of Undergraduate
Education
- Alverno College: The women's college in
Milwaukee is expanding the quantitative reasoning
requirement for all students beyond the introductory
level, including non-math and science majors.
- Brooklyn College - City University of New
York: The school's "across the curriculum"
project systematically links quantitative skills
through core course in math, natural sciences
and social sciences.
- Broward Community College: This two-year
Florida college's new Exploration Center will
have an integrated math, science, engineering
and technology curriculum with multi-course projects
and interaction with business and govenment agencies.
- City College - City University of New York:
The school is increasing the engagement of faculty
in undergraduate education through new reward
structures, formal training in curriculum design
and mentoring and support systems.
- Colorado School of Mines: The school is
in the fourth year of a curriculum reform process,
currently implementing a unique undergraduate
engineering curriculum that will include new texts,
lab experiments and multimedia materials.
- Colorado State University: A two-year
project will overhaul math, science and computing
skills for non-science majors. Multi-disciplinary,
lab-based core courses have clearly defined links
between the impact of science and technology on
society and the essential role of non-science
disciplines.
- Drexel University: Drexel is building
faculty-wide teaching development activities based
on successful programs in math/science integration
with engineering, widening the effort into investigative,
problem-solving bioscience curriculums.
- Hampshire College: The Massachusetts institution's
expanded Inquiry Project Courses include an original
research project to expand student skills in critical
thinking, quantitative reasoning, collaborative
research and communications.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
M.I.T. is developing discipline-specific communications
instruction and practice into its technical and
scientific undergraduate programs, recognizing
that scientists' and engineers' professional success
depends upon how they communicate to wide audiences.
- Milikin University: The Illinois university
is fundamentally changing introductory science
courses across disciplines to increase student
understanding of the linkages between them, and
applying this knowledge to solve problems in the
local community.
- New York City Technical College - City University
of New York: The revision of core mathematics
and science courses includes identifying connections
among the courses and developing experience-based
problems that enhance student skills in critical
thinking.
- Portland State University: A Science Cornerstone
Project of interdisciplinary courses is designed
to achieve improved science literacy among students
majoring in fields outside science, math, engineering
and technology.
- Sinclair Community College: The Dayton,
Ohio college is employing new methods to align
curriculum format to modern delivery systems and
addressing new ways to align curriculum outcomes
with the requirements of the modern work place.
- Southwestern College: The Kansas school
is structuring research projects to address real
problems. Freshmen students conduct an across-the-curriculum
project in water quality, formulating hypotheses
and designing experiments, then generating proposals
for research by the next freshman class.
- Trinity College, Connecticut: Philosophy
course labs are being developed to model those
found in science departments to focus on students'
problem-solving skills. Cross-disciplinary techniques
in math and science associated with philosophy
to improve math and science literacy within a
humanities setting.
- University of California - Irvine: Major
curriculum changes in math, computer science and
engineering (and engineering literacy), along
with a new infusion of educational technology
and multidisciplinary curricular committees are
part of a Campuswide Reform Initiative.
- University of Delaware: Interdisciplinary
faculty teams are creating freshman and sophomore-based
Foundation Courses in science and engineering
to increase analytical skills, better communication,
teamwork and resource utilization.
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Addressing
concerns of students that introductory science
and mathematics courses have little relation to
one another, WPI has begun a system of peer-assisted
cooperative learning, open-ended group course
projects and integrated computational and instructional
technology.
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