Imagining the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education Proceedings of a Virtual Symposium (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8 Final Reflections
8 Final Reflections
Pages 69-82
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 69... ...
EXAMPLES OF PARTICIPANT STORIES Symposium participants were offered the opportunity to engage in multiple exercises to discuss and then write stories imagining the future of undergraduate STEM students in 2040. Suggested story topics for group writing included reenvisioning courses; internships, cooperatives, and work experience; capstone and integrative experiences; informal and continuing education; and cocurricular and service-learning projects.
|
From page 70... ...
Topics included imagining the world of 2040, transforming the student learning experience, redesigning pathways for undergraduate STEM education, systemic change in higher education, and envisioning the future role of faculty and staff. Two examples of stories can be found in Boxes 8-1 and 8-2, others can be found on the symposium webpage.1 The moderators created a word cloud summarizing key ideas and themes from the individual stories (Figure 8-1)
|
From page 71... ...
Faculty will run projects and create modules to help students learn fundamentals and integrate their learning. Various pathways through education will be grouped by theme -- sustainability, joyful living, health, infrastructure, for instance -- rather than discipline.
|
From page 72... ...
Stein said there is an opportunity to create an undergraduate STEM educational experience that recognizes individual students where they are, takes a system approach, and changes the world by changing the educational system. At the same time, another theme Stein heard throughout the conversations of the past 2 days was that when making a change to one piece of the system, other parts of the system tend to pull it back to the status quo.
|
From page 73... ...
Next, planning committee co-chair Annette Parker of South Central College shared her view of the symposium's discussions from her perspec tive as a Community College president. She reflected on the first commis sioned paper presented by Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux (see Chapter 3)
|
From page 74... ...
The ecosystem of learning will depend heavily on the Internet, raising the importance of providing broadband access and the tools to use it to all Americans -- rural and urban -- if equity is the goal, as well as on the availability of effective educational modules of the type seen in well resourced schools. She also commented on the need to make undergraduate STEM education relevant to students and involve them in solving problems that are important in their communities POSSIBLITIES FOR THE FUTURE As a concluding activity, the planning committee asked educators who had participated in the symposium to summarize the lessons they drew from the discussions and activities and to offer suggestions for sharing these insights more widely (see Box 8-3)
|
From page 75... ...
Smith University Kai Jun Chew, Ph.D. Candidate, Virginia Tech Cordelia Ontiveros, Professor Emerita, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Patrick Shabram, Professor, Front Range Community College Bob Kolvoord, Dean, College of Integrated Science and Engineering, James Madison University Jessica Parr, Associate Professor (teaching)
|
From page 76... ...
A key lesson that excited Cordelia Ontiveros, the emerita dean of the Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona, is that undergraduate STEM education is becoming more socially and culturally aware, equitable, and inclusive. She is also excited about a future where multiple, valid pathways are available for students to pursue an undergraduate STEM education; their background and experience are considered to be valid, relevant, and important, students are accepted where they are; and diverse students can experience a sense of belonging, community, and acknowledgment that they matter and count as competent STEM students.
|
From page 77... ...
Shabram noted that he was going to take the COVID-19 restrictions as an opportunity to rethink everything about the way he organizes his classes. Turning to the second group of four panelists, planning committee member Ryan Kelsey of the Markle Foundation asked the panelists to discuss what excites them most about how undergraduate STEM education will change by 2040 and what they see as good ways of disseminating the lessons from this symposium.
|
From page 78... ...
Achieving that goal means meeting students where they are, per haps by partnering with K–12 schools to help provide opportunities for all schools. As an example, she compared the K–12 school where her son goes versus the one her nephew attends.
|
From page 79... ...
, and the committee co-chairs, Annette Parker and Barbara Schaal. Wright noted that many of those attending the symposium have worked hard at improving undergraduate STEM education for decades and that much has changed over the past 20 years.
|
From page 80... ...
"The needs are too urgent and the consequences of business as usual are too dire," she said in concluding her remarks. Parker agreed with Wright that big changes are needed and said that the paper from Malcom-Piqueux affected her more than anything she heard in that it talked about how the legislation that was intended to help all of the nation's citizens instead had produced unintended consequences that did not make education equitable so that all students could succeed.
|
From page 81... ...
FINAL REFLECTIONS 81 Schaal. On a final note, she added that there are bright lights in the system, particularly regarding how many HBCUs and tribal universities are doing a good job working with students and moving them along an educational journey in a very individual way using dynamic structures that focus on equitable learning and outcomes.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.