Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR)

Overview

<p>Note: This revision contains new due dates for all levels of the IUSE program. All other program information remains the same. The IUSE: EHR program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation.</p> <p>The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Initiative is a Foundation-wide effort to accelerate improvements in the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education in all STEM fields. Through the IUSE framework, NSF coordinates its investments in undergraduate programs and undergraduate STEM education to maximize impact, and to use shared metrics and appropriate program evaluation approaches. These investments are made across all directorates and address both STEM education in general and specific disciplinary needs. IUSE investments support a variety of activities including the inclusion of inquiry-based and active learning approaches in undergraduate STEM instruction, efforts to increase undergraduate STEM research experiences and courses, and research on the persistence and graduation of students in STEM programs. In addition, specific emerging cross-disciplinary needs include data science preparation for students in all majors, recruitment and retention of women and of students from underrepresented groups in STEM degree programs, incorporation of undergraduate research in STEM fields for STEM majors and non-majors, and re-envisioning of introductory courses in light of new research findings and theories. IUSE also seeks to broaden participation in STEM fields from all sectors and groups in society and proposers are encouraged to establish linkages, as appropriate, with components of the national network of NSF INCLUDES projects.</p> <p>The IUSE: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR) program seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for all undergraduates. Through its investments, the program seeks to support development, and implementation, and research efforts that (1) bring recent advances in STEM disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge into undergraduate education, (2) adapt, improve, and incorporate evidence-based practices into STEM teaching and learning, and (3) lay the groundwork for institutional improvement. Investments made by the IUSE: EHR program seek to contribute to the educational and capacity-building goals of the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources and to the strategic goals and objectives of the NSF.</p> <p>The IUSE: EHR program supports projects designed to contribute to a future in which all undergraduate students are fully engaged in their STEM learning. The IUSE: EHR program promotes (1) Engaged Student Learning: the development, testing, and use of teaching practices and curricular innovations that will engage students and improve learning, persistence, and retention in STEM, and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation: the transformation of colleges and universities to implement and sustain highly effective STEM teaching and learning.</p> <p>All projects supported by IUSE: EHR must:<br>-Demonstrate a strong rationale for project objectives or incorporate and build on educational practices that are demonstrably effective<br>-Contribute to the development of exemplary undergraduate STEM education<br>-Add to the body of knowledge about what works in undergraduate STEM education and the conditions that lead to improved STEM teaching and learning<br>-Measure project progress and achievement of project goals</p> <p>To accomplish these goals, IUSE: EHR projects may focus their activities at any level, including the student, faculty, institutional or community5 levels. Development, propagation, adaptation, and transferability of evidence-based practices are also important considerations. Projects should consider designing materials and practices for use in a wide variety of institutions or institutional types. Topics of interest to the IUSE: EHR program include, but are not limited to, the following:<br>-Development and study of the efficacy of innovative teaching and learning practices and resources<br>-Development, testing, and dissemination of instruments for measuring student outcomes<br>-Efforts to increase the diversity of the STEM workforce including K-12 teachers and/or the faculty and institutions engaged in work to improve undergraduate STEM education<br>-Faculty professional development to increase the use of evidence-based teaching practices<br>-Implementation of and research on sustained change processes involved in adopting evidence-based and effective instruction within or across departments, disciplines, or institutions<br>-Efforts to achieve STEM educational goals through innovative partnerships, for example with community organizations, local, regional, or national industries, centers for teaching and learning, professional societies, or libraries,<br>-Propagating and sustaining transformative and effective STEM teaching and learning through institutional practices or involvement of professional societies</p> <p>IUSE: EHR also welcomes proposals to conduct workshops and conferences aimed at improving undergraduate STEM education, developing implementation practices, and/or assembling research partnerships and agendas.</p>