AAU Launches Website for STEM Education Initiative

The Association of American Universities (AAU), an association of leading public and private research universities, recently launched the AAU STEM Initiative Hub, a website that will both support and widen the impact of the association’s initiative to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields at its member institutions.

AAU has partnered with HUBzero, a web-based platform for scientific collaboration developed and managed by Purdue University, to create the AAU STEM Initiative Hub. The new website provides an interactive tool for AAU universities to showcase innovative institutional efforts they have undertaken to implement key elements of the Framework for Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Teaching and Learning, such as encouraging more interactive teaching practices and influencing departmental cultures to support faculty members who want to improve the quality of their teaching.

The new website will make the university examples accessible not only to AAU universities but also to non-member universities, the broader higher education community, and others engaged in STEM educational transformation, as well as the general public.

“As institutions take steps to improve their use of evidence-based teaching practices, AAU hopes these examples will serve as a resource for all colleges and universities working to improve undergraduate teaching and learning in STEM,” says AAU President Hunter Rawlings.

The Hub will also profile efforts being advanced by AAU’s eight STEM Initiative Project Sites and provide a secure space for AAU STEM Network members to share information about successful strategies and challenges they are facing in improving STEM education. The Hub will help cultivate relationships among those leading reform efforts at AAU universities, providing a forum for ongoing interaction and exchange of information and ideas.

“Our goal is to support and link AAU institutions grappling with similar challenges and barriers in reforming and improving STEM teaching and learning for undergraduate students,” says Rawlings.

The AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative is supported by grants from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the National Science Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

About AAU
The Association of American Universities is an association of 60 U.S. and two Canadian research universities organized to develop and implement effective national and institutional policies supporting research and scholarship, graduate and professional education, undergraduate education, and public service in research universities.

Follow AAU on Twitter at @AAUniversities.

Featured

  • Miami University Approves New $242M Multipurpose Arena

    Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, recently announced that its Board of Trustees has approved construction of a new multipurpose arena at Cook Field, according to university news. The $242-million project will serve as a new centralized hub for student life and create space for economic development on campus.

  • Image courtesy of Kahler Slater

    UW–Madison Announces Completion of Morgridge Hall

    The University of Wisconsin–Madison recently announced that construction is complete on Morgridge Hall, a new academic building, according to a news release. The facility opened September 3 at the start of the fall semester, consolidating the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences into a single facility for the first time.

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.

  • Stanford Completes Construction on Graduate School of Education Facility

    Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., recently announced the end of construction on a new home for its Graduate School of Education, according to a news release. The university partnered with McCarthy Building Companies on the 160,000-square-foot project, which involved two major renovations and one new construction effort.