Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education

Managing Reform

Assessing Success

Harnessing Technology

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

May 28-30, 1998

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host a conference on undergraduate science, mathematics and engineering education, May 28-30, 1998. The conference is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences with cooperation from the College of Engineering and the Teachers College. The conference is designed to attract an audience from across the nation with a special emphasis on participation from two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities in the midwest. We anticipate having about 300 participants. Planning for the conference is being carried out by an eleven-member steering committee with a broad representation of the science and engineering disciplines, the Teaching and Learning Center, and the Teachers College. We are being advised by a National Advisory Committee representing a broad range of academic and nonacademic backgrounds.

The theme of the conference will be an examination of efforts to "reform" undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering and technology education in the light of the report "Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education" published by the National Science Foundation in 1996. We are designing the program to be informative for those faculty members who are relatively new to the undergraduate SME&T reform effort while at the same time providing a review of progress and problems for those who are already active participants in reform.

By structuring the registration fees for the conference, we will strongly encourage colleges and universities to send teams of faculty and administrators who have primary responsibility in undergraduate SME&T education. Each team will receive background information prior to the conference and will be charged with two tasks: (1) Devising plans for a reform activity that can be started immediately upon return to campus. (2) Outlining plans for developing a broad and on-going undergraduate SME&T reform effort on their home campuses, preferably in a cooperative effort with other colleges and universities

We anticipate that most of the participants will be familiar with the basic recommendations of "Shaping the Future." (They will be sent a summary of the report prior to the conference, and we will urge each team to discuss the recommendations before coming to the conference.) The conference will focus on three themes that affect the implementation of the recommendations of that report. These themes are reflected in the working title for the conference:

"Shaping the Future of Undergraduate SME&T Education:

Managing Reform,

Assessing Success,

and Harnessing Technology"

Each of the three themes will focus on both demonstrated successes and recognized difficulties in implementing the recommendations of "Shaping the Future."

1. Managing Reform.

This theme will focus on unraveling the issues associated with the "science for all" and "learning through inquiry" recommendations of Shaping the Future.

• How do the various disciplinary efforts (calculus reform, the chemistry curriculum development efforts, and the engineering coalitions) impact on "science for all"? Do they implement learning through inquiry?
• What are the pros and cons of discipline-based reform compared to institution-wide reform?
• For long-term science education reform, changes in K-12 teacher preparation are crucial.
• What are the responsibilities of SME&T departments for pre-service teacher preparation? How is learning through inquiry shaped by the needs of pre-service teachers?
• What will be the impact on the National Science and Math Education Standards on the preparation of K-12 science and math teachers and on what the next generation of students will bring with them to post-secondary education?
• Where are the resources to come from if "science for all" and "learning through inquiry" are to be taken seriously?

We will have presentations from several of the major discipline-based reform efforts as well as from several colleges and universities that have undertaken institution-wide reform efforts. We will also showcase model K-12 science teacher preparation programs. Breakout groups will allow the participants to discuss implementation and policy issues and to understand the issues concerning the management of change and reform.

2. Assessing Success.

Assessment remains the most controversial part of undergraduate SME&T reform. Many faculty members remain skeptical about the need for reform and about the effectiveness of many proposed innovations. Here we want to analyze the main features of assessment: outcomes-based assessment, program assessment, formative assessment, summative assessment, assessment of courses, and assessment of student learning.

• How do professional organization standards, such as the new Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) standards, affect undergraduate SME&T? (This issue is of particular concern to engineering departments and departments such as physics and mathematics, which provide important service courses for engineering students.)
• What is known about effective assessment? What are the limitations of assessment? We plan to have a presentation based on the February, 1998 Forum on Assessment organized by the National Institute for Science Education and several workshops for the conference participants to address assessment issues and provide exercises in assessment design.

3. Harnessing technology.

Technology raises at least two distinct issues:

• How can we take advantage of new technology to enhance SME&T education? Is technology driving us to new ways of teaching and learning and making possible the teaching of new content?
• How do rapid changes in technology affect the practice of science and the daily lives of both students and faculty? Can we use educational technology as a paradigm for handling change and reform?

We will hold one afternoon's sessions on campus using some of the multimedia classrooms. Workshops will allow the participants to gain direct experience with several methods of using technology in undergraduate SME&T education.

Each of the three themes will be discussed by a plenary speaker, who will be charged with providing a broad overview and highlighting critical issues. Many smaller break-out sessions will allow the participants to discuss the themes more broadly and to begin to develop plans of action for their home campuses. Each break-out group will have an assigned task and will report back to the entire conference. The focus will be on providing tools and ideas the teams can take back to their home campuses that will yield immediate action. The plans developed by each team will be distributed to all of the conference participants. The conference leaders will help teams find other teams with similar interests to encourage cooperative reform efforts. We also plan to have several moderate-size sessions, for example on the ABET standards, which will appeal to participants from specific disciplines. We will have an evening talk on a topic of general scientific interest that will appeal to all the participants and to the general public. Robert F. Watson, on special assignment from NSF, and Melvin George, chair of the committee that wrote "Shaping the Future," have agreed to participate in the UNL conference.

We will also make arrangements for participation of business, industry, and government leaders in the conference. We will also invite someone from the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF to present a workshop on DUE grant-writing.

The opening session for the conference will be a combined reception and poster session, at which college and university teams can present information about undergraduate SME&T innovations underway on their home campuses.

Further Connections:

In order to enhance the usefulness of the conference to UNL faculty members, we will link both the publicity and the themes of the conference to the "undergraduate science reform" speakers series to be held in February and March at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This series will bring leaders of discipline-based reform efforts in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering to the UNL campus. Each leader will present a talk open to the entire campus community and will meet with faculty to discuss reform efforts in his or her discipline.

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