2012 - Undergraduate STEM Education Report Released - ENGAGE TO EXCEL: PRODUCING ONE MILLION ADDITIONAL COLLEGE
GRADUATES WITH DEGREES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS
On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released its report entitled “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” This report provides a strategy for improving STEM education during the first two years of college that we believe is responsive to both the challenges and the opportunities that this crucial stage in the STEM education pathway presents.Recommendations
Three imperatives underpin the recommendations in PCAST’s report:
1. Improve the first two years of STEM education in college.
2. Provide all students with the tools to excel.
3. Diversify pathways to STEM degrees.
In addition to its call to create a Presidential Council on STEM Education to help implement and expand uponPCAST’s recommendations, the report’s major policy recommendations—applicable to technical and
community colleges as well as four-year colleges and universities—are:
1. Catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices.Studies have shown that classroom approaches that engage students as active participants improve retention of information and critical thinking skills and can significantly increase STEM-major interest and perseverance, compared with conventional lecturing. In one study, for example, students in traditional lecture courses weretwice as likely to leave engineering and three times as likely to drop out of college entirely compared withstudents taught using active learning techniques. In another study, students in a physics class that used activelearning methods learned twice as much as those taught in a traditional class, as measured by test results.These evidence-based teaching methods do not necessarily require more resources than traditional lectures, butmost faculty lack experience using these methods and are unfamiliar with the vast body of research indicatingtheir impact on learning. The Federal Government could have a major impact by supporting programs thatprovide training for faculty in evidence-based teaching methods and materials, and by supporting thedevelopment of tools to measure progress in this domain.
2. Advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based
research courses.Too often, even the “active learning” elements of today’s teaching regimens—laboratory courses— simply repeat classical experiments rather than engaging students in compelling experiments with the possibility and excitement of true discovery. One study found, for example, that college sophomores who engaged in research projects with a professor were significantly less likely to leave STEM majors than those who did not. The Federal Government should support the scale-up of model research and design courses and change Federal rulesto allow the expansion of opportunities for student research and design in faculty research laboratories.
3. Launch a national experiment in postsecondary mathematics education to address the math
preparation gap.Nearly 60 percent of students enter college without the math skills needed for STEM majors. This not only
limits students’ ability to enter these careers, but costs a great deal—colleges spend at least $2 billion per year on developmental education for underprepared students. The Federal Government should support an initiative to reduce the math bottleneck, focusing on: summer and other bridge programs for high school students entering college; improved remedial courses for college students; new college math curricula developed and taught by scientists and engineers who are not mathematicians, and; producing more K-12 mathematics teachers from non-math-major science and engineering graduates.
4. Encourage partnerships among stakeholders to diversify pathways to STEM careers.The conventional educational “pipeline” to STEM competency and accomplishment should be replaced by a
more diverse set of pathways to attract and retain STEM students with backgrounds atypical of traditional
STEM students. With the assistance of Federal programs and public-private partnerships, 2-and 4-year
institutions should make new connections among themselves and with other institutions to provide more entry
points and pathways to STEM degrees. These connections should reach beyond current partnerships between community and technical colleges and private-sector employers to encourage scientific research and engineering design exchanges across two-and four-year institutions.
PCAST is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who directly advise the President and the Executive Office of the President. For more information, please visit www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast.
- Agenda (pdf)
- Webcast
- Full Report (pdf)
- Executive Report (pdf)
- Report Fact Sheet (pdf)
- Presidential Commitments (pdf)
- Presentation (pdf)
2010 - K-12 STEM Education Report
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