Active learning pedagogical practices are more effective than instructor-centered teaching in building students' knowledge, skills, and understanding of engineering content and concepts. As such, a large-scale professional development (PD) program was created to move faculty toward the use of active learning. The project aimed to engage faculty in…

Regional comprehensive universities with access-oriented missions provide critical pathways for increasing the number and diversity of STEM graduates. The BOND program at California State University, Fresno supports the transition to college for first-time, full-time freshmen in selected STEM majors. BOND incorporates a learning community, active…

Active learning research emerged from the undergraduate STEM education communities of practice, some of whom identify as discipline-based education researchers (DBER). Consequently, current frameworks of active learning are largely inductive and based on emergent patterns observed in undergraduate teaching and learning. Alternatively, classic…

We describe a long-standing weeklong K-12 STEM teacher workshop that shifted to a virtual platform in 2020. We re-engaged former participants during this STEM Institute with goals of (1) modeling ways to connect best practices for STEM education gained in previous workshops to a virtual environment, (2) providing space for teacher reflection on…

Many institutions are preparing graduate students and postdoctorals (future faculty) for effective teaching in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Interestingly, little is known about beneficial features of teaching-development (TD) programs for future faculty after they transition into professoriate roles, and…

Gateways-ND is a 5-year, National Science Foundation-funded effort directed toward three goals: maximizing the instructional effectiveness of postsecondary STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) faculty by building expertise in learner-focused practice, positively impacting student success in STEM-based "gateway"…

Background: With the increased attention on the need to retain students within STEM majors, it is important for STEM instructors to adopt evidence-based instructional practices that are student-centric and employ active learning techniques. However, traditional approaches for increasing student-centric, active learning practices such as workshops,…

Children are intrigued by moving objects, even more so when they can engineer the movement. This volume in the STEM for Our Youngest Learners Series uses Ramps and Pathways as a context to provide children ages 3-8 with opportunities to engage in STEM every day. Ramps and Pathways is a meaningful and fun way for children to develop engineering…

Introductory biology and chemistry courses have some of the highest attrition rates at Delaware Technical Community College. High attrition rates in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses are also present on a national scale (Chen, 2013). Research in student success points to a lack of student-centered…

Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities,…

As part of a Howard Hughes Program for Innovation in Science Education grant at Iowa State University, a series of interdisciplinary graduate teaching assistant learning communities (TALC) were developed. The purpose of these communities was to create an environment to facilitate teaching assistants' pedagogical development and training to enhance…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Student Leadership and Engagement and includes: (1) Project Based Learning for Student Success--Teaching Across Content Areas for…

Retention and graduation rates for engineering disciplines are significantly lower than desired, and research literature offers many possible causes. Engineering learning communities provide the opportunity to study relationships among specific causes and to develop and evaluate activities designed to lessen their impact. This paper details an…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is the principal association representing the technology leadership in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is SETDA's ninth annual report on select educational technology activities. This year's report includes…

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)--the principal association representing the technology leadership in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs--presents its eighth annual report on select, national, educational technology activities. This…