STEM education centers: catalyzing the improvement of undergraduate STEM education.

Background: With the remarkable attention being paid to STEM education nationally, with the growing engagement of universities and colleges in STEM education reform, and with the rise of STEM education centers, SECs, assisting universities as they strive to achieve these reforms, this research provides insight into the roles of six SECs. Through a multi-dimensional cross-site comparison, we provide a lens into the ways in which SECs function on their campuses, illuminating possibilities for those seeking to strengthen undergraduate STEM education.

Results: SECs play an important networking role on their campuses, where they inform and unify institutional efforts, serving to elevate their visibility and importance both internally and externally.

Insights from a Convocation: Integrating Discovery-Based Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a convocation in 2015 to explore and elucidate opportunities, barriers, and realities of course-based undergraduate research experiences, known as CUREs, as a potentially integral component of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This paper summarizes the convocation and resulting report.

Human Brains Engaged in Rat Brains: Student-driven Neuroanatomy Research in an Introductory Biology Lab Course.

Inquiry-based laboratory instruction has been shown to actively engage students in the content and skills being taught. These courses are further intended to teach students not only what is known, but also the process by which investigators come to know it. We sought to take this approach one step further and incorporate novel research questions into an inquiry-based laboratory model early in the undergraduate course of study.