State of STEM at Scientia
Advances in science, mathematics, engineering education are focus of Rice conference

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

The state of the art in education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is the theme of this year’s Scientia Conference at Rice University Feb. 11-12. 

The conference, titled “Research and Innovation in Undergraduate Natural Science and Engineering Education,” is free and open to the public. All events will be held at Duncan Hall’s McMurtry Auditorium on the Rice campus, 6100 Main St. Lectures will be held from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 11, followed by a reception. Saturday’s lectures will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Preregistration is required; go to http://signup.rice.edu/STEM/. In addition, members of the Rice and Houston communities who work in STEM education are encouraged to submit abstracts for poster presentations that will be held Feb. 12. All abstracts should be e-mailed to scientia@rice.edu. More information about the conference, including presentation and poster abstracts, can be found at http://scientia.rice.edu/STEM.

The conference will bring eight respected American scholars in STEM education to Houston. They will detail their efforts to improve teaching and advance learning in undergraduate courses in an area seen as critical to the nation’s economic future and international competitiveness.

Scientia speakers will take a wide view of the challenges in getting students to develop and maintain a passion for science and engineering and helping them master the challenging concepts in their coursework. The conference features an innovative format. Each invited speaker will speak briefly on the development and assessment of new pedagogical approaches, and then conference participants will experience these approaches in breakout sessions led by the speakers. Rice faculty who propose to implement approaches discussed at the conference may be eligible to receive honoraria in connection with teaching grants for innovation. 

Robert Beichner, the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, will detail his Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) initiative. The combined pedagogy and room design has been adopted at more than 100 leading institutions across the country to keep large classrooms engaged in a variety of subjects. Beichner will discuss how the program enhances communication and teamwork skills and boosts the performance of underrepresented groups.

Other featured speakers and their talks include:

Guershon Harel of the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, San Diego, on “A Research-based Framework for Teaching Mathematics Effectively.”

Stephen Pollock of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, on “Transforming Upper-level Physics Classes.”

Mark Chang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Olin College of Engineering, on “Motivating Innovation Through the Synthesis of Design, Engineering and Entrepreneurship.”

Donald French, professor of science education, behavioral ecology, fish and invertebrates at Oklahoma State University, on “Effective Direction of Inquiry-based Labs.”

Wendy Newstetter, director of learning science research, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, on “Problem-driven Learning: A Socio-cognitive Approach to Classroom Design.”

Valerie Otero, associate professor of science education, director of the Colorado Learning Assistant Programs and co-director of CU-Teach and iSTEM Programs at the University of Colorado, Boulder, on “Guided Inquiry Using Student Assessment Data and Undergraduate Teaching Assistants as Facilitators.”

Angelica Stacy, a professor in the Department Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, on “Chemistry Assessments that Support Change and Shift Practice.”

The conference was organized by a committee of Rice faculty, chaired by John Hutchinson, dean of undergraduates and professor of chemistry.  Other committee members include Carolyn Nichol, executive director of the ConocoPhillips Rice Elementary Model Science Lab and lecturer in chemistry; Michael Gustin, professor of biochemistry and cell biology; John Polking, professor emeritus of mathematics; Steven Cox, professor of computational and applied mathematics; Mark Embree, director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership, the John and Ann Doerr Professor and professor of computational and applied mathematics; Ann Saterbak, professor in the practice of bioengineering; Anne Papakonstantinou, project director of the Rice University School Mathematics Project; Brendan Hassett, professor and chair of mathematics; James Young, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Patricia Reiff, professor of physics and astronomy.

“The committee and I have worked to bring to Rice the latest and best thinking about how our students learn and how we should teach them, based on the research of the past decade,” Hutchinson said. “We are hoping that the conference will inspire innovation at Rice and a continuing conversation about teaching excellence.”

Hutchinson said the conference honors the memory of William Gordon, a physics and astronomy professor, dean, provost and vice president at Rice from 1966 to 1986 who died last February. Gordon is known as the “father of the Arecibo Observatory,” a massive radar and radio telescope in Puerto Rico that he designed. He oversaw construction and ran the observatory from 1960 until joining Rice.

The event is funded by the De Lange Conferences.