CU STEM Education Programs
Alliance for Technology Learning & Society (ATLAS) creates and facilitates innovative interdisciplinary research, education, and creative outreach programs in which information and communication technology is an enabling force.
BeSocratic, a collaboration between Clemson University and UC Boulder, offers examples of various Socratic, i.e. metacognitive, exercises and activities designed to provoke explicit articulation and reflection on various scientific and mathematical ideas and skills. This NSF funded project is based on easily authored, graphical-based activities with dynamic, research based responses to students and robust data collection systems for researchers.
Biological Sciences Initiative offers multiple programs for students and teachers of the biological sciences including many free programs for K-12 teachers and paid research opportunities to undergraduates at CU.
Broadening Opportunities through Leadership and Diversity promotes diversity in race, socioeconomic representation, and gender within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Center for Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning works to improve excellence in the education of undergraduates by developing a nation wide committee which enacts and advances the teaching practices for diverse learners.
CIRES Education and Outreach educates people about Earth and environmental science issues that are relevant to our everyday lives, through outreach to the public and to the K-12 education community. They also run a GK12 project.
Colorado Diversity Initiative in science, math and engineering is the overseer for two major grants that support diversity initiatives. Both the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professorate (AGEP) and the National Institutes of Health Initiative for Minority Student Development (IMSD) grant award assistantships to incoming underrepresented graduate students, offer professional development opportunities, and support undergraduate research efforts.
Colorado Momentum Implements oral assessment in courses in Applied Math that have improved student's passing rate in Calculus I and Calculus II.
Computational Optical Sensory Imaging Integrative Graduate Education and Research partners Graduate students and faculty members in collaborative research environments for the purpose of training the students in computational optical sensing and imaging.
CU Museum of Natural History is very involved with STEM education. Many of its exhibits target students of all ages. In particular, the museum's Fossils in the Classroom program is designed to engage and support elementary school students' learning, as the study of fossils has been recently added to the list of Colorado Academic Standards by the Colorado Department of Education.
CU President's Teaching Scholars Program is designed to honor faculty who have excelled in effective and exemplary teaching, creative work, scholarship, and research. The President’s Teaching Scholars are chosen from three campuses designated not only for skill in their own classrooms, but for their promise of improving education and enlarging its possibilities across the University.
CU Science Discovery offers an myriad of summer, after-school, and overnight informal science camps. Science Discovery brings the expertise of CU into the community.
CU Teach is Colorado's innovative secondary mathematics and science teacher education program that offers leadership training to all undergraduates interested in science and mathematics education at all levels. Check out CU Teach Pod Casts.
Discipline Based Education Research is a weekly working seminar where faculty engaged in discipline-based education research can present their work, share their ideas, and coordinate with each other. DBER takes place every Wednesday in Porter B121 at 3:00pm. For more up to date topics, please visit our events page.
eCSite- Engaging Computer Science in Traditional Education oversees two GK12 projects in Computer Science and Engineering.
Ethnography and Evaluation Research draws upon a network of colleagues through STEM Education and University of Colorado at Boulder to distribute research findings to other programs looking to improve their own STEM programs.
Faculty Teaching Excellence Program (FTEP) develops the art and craft of teaching among faculty and has been "teaching teaching" to professors, because good teaching is rarely innate, but is rather a learned skill. FTEP is founded on the principles that there is no one right way to teach and that faculty learn best from one another. These processes vary by discipline and vary with faculty members' own styles.
Fiske Planetarium and Science Center is a resource for STEM faculty wishing integrate hands-on learning in non-lab courses. A popular field trip destination, Fiske has a strong K12 outreach program and also develops nationally disseminated planetarium curriculum.
Graduate Teaching Program (GTP): Provides professional development opportunities for all graduate student from all colleges based on students' current teaching, research, and service responsibilities and on future career goals.
Herbst Program for the Humanities: equips engineering students with the right tools to gain intelligent and relevant access to the great ongoing conversations of human existence. They offer small core classes (12-14) that are highly interactive and practical.
Integrated Teaching and Learning Program & Lab provides and hands on learning environment for introductory engineering courses. In addition to the lab and all of its resources, the ITL program offers a K12 outreach program that utilizes GK12 funding.
Integrative Design-based Reform-oriented Educational Approach for Motivating Students strives to engage students' interest in computer science through video game design. The ultimate goal is to encourage students to pursue careers in the field of information technology.
JILA PFC Education & Outreach: PISEC- Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community
provides opportunities for university students (undergraduates, graduate students, and post docs) to teach inquiry-based science activities to K-12 populations under represented in science, such as Hispanic, African American, and economically disadvantaged youth.
LASP Education and Outreach has an extensive k12 outreach and teacher professional development program that offers curricular resources and actives.
Learning Assistant Program uses the transformation of large-enrollment science courses as a mechanism for recruiting and preparing talented science majors for careers in teaching, to
engage science faculty in the recruitment and preparation of future teachers, to improve the quality of science education for all undergraduates, and to transform departmental cultures to value research-based teaching for ourselves and for our students.
Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program encourages students to develop a collaborative community while giving them a challenging program that enriches their academic experience.
Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities presents a unique opportunity for educating a new generation of engineers who contribute to the relief of the problems faced by developing communities worldwide. The Center emphasizes an integrated and participatory nature of humanitarian development.
National Center for Women & Information Technology is a coalition of more than 170 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase women's participation in information technology (IT).
The NOYCE Foundation focuses on improving the teaching of math, science and literacy in public schools. Their goals are accomplished using education policy and research and engaging students in hands-on science outside of the classroom.
PhET Interactive Simulations provides free, research-based physics, chemistry, earth science and biology interactive simulations for the classroom, from k12 to college level sims.
Physics Education Research Group one of the newest and largest research programs in PER in the nation.
Science Education Initiative is a university- supported, 5-year, $5million project to improve how we teach science to all undergraduate students.
Women in Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Group was started in the spring semester of the 2010-2011 academic school year. Sponsored by iSTEM and the ECEE department, the Women in ECEE group strives to increase the number of female undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty members in Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering.
This is only a partial listing of the STEM education programs at CU Boulder