. Disseminating Successful Undergraduate Science Curriculum Adaptation and Implementation Strategies and CCLI-ND Grant-Writing Techniques: Regional Workshops Led by Successful Innovators and Experienced Investigators, Evaluating Faculty Change Processes and Assessing Student Understanding of STEM Concepts

Abstract

From 1980-2006, we showed multiple cohorts of undergraduate faculty how environmental impact analysis can be used in their STEM courses to tie together scientific concepts and theories, research and analytical techniques, and mathematical and communication skills appropriate to address local environmental problems. During more than 20 summer workshops (5 days to 3 weeks), we chose themes of Stressed Stream Analysis or Great Lakes Ecosystem Dynamics because those topics allowed us to demonstrate (and for participants to learn hands-on) new, ecologically based approaches to pollution control and to use spreadsheet models to explore the movements of pollutants in ecological systems. Faculty participants (mostly from the disciplines of biology, chemistry, geology, and engineering) worked in teams to address the environmental problems presented to them by the workshop instructors then wrote environmental impact statements. In later stages of our workshop activities for undergraduate faculty, we also developed units on developing their capacity to use and modify new assessment instruments to gather better data on student learning and managing the challenges of undertaking significant pedagogical and curricular changes in their courses.