Carleton helps unlock science education’s secret sauce

For years, Carleton has been lauded for its strength in science education. Now, any school can learn some of the insider secrets, right from the source.

15 June 2016 Posted In:
Science at Carleton
Science at CarletonPhoto: Sara Rubinstein '98

For years, Carleton College has been lauded for its strength in science education. Now, any school can learn some of the insider secrets, right from the source.

The Science Education Research Center (SERC) at Carleton College recently announced the launch of newly created websites, highlighting each “Capstone Institute’s” strength in teaching STEM fields at their respective institutions.

The websites are part of a $50 million Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant awarded in 2012, given to 47 small colleges and universities that were recognized as incubators of new ideas and models for improving science education in higher education. Of those 47 schools, 11 were chosen as “Capstone Institutions.”

“The main idea behind building the capstone website was not only to highlight what Carleton has been doing over the past 20+ years in science education with the help of HHMI, but to explore the similarities and differences between the various science education projects at schools with similar long term support from HHMI,” Cam Davidson, professor of geology and director of Carleton’s interdisciplinary science and math initiative, said. “Our hope is that this site will become a valuable resource for programs interested in developing their own science education programs that support all students, regardless of academic preparation and background.”

The newly completed and released website features detailed information from each Capstone Institution about its programming via an institutional profile. In addition, a synthesis of lessons learned in each of the four areas has been constructed from the experiences of all the institutions.

Part of the grant asked these “Capstone Institutions” to identify key elements of success in science education, and to collaborate on the common factors that other schools could use in improving science education. The schools identified four specific areas that could lead to the desired improvements:

  • Developing inquiry skills through curriculum structures and scientific problem-solving processes.
  • Increase persistence of all students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields through network of support from recruitment to matriculation and beyond.
  • Interdisciplinary learning, as these institutions found successful STEM students find experiences through solving real-world issues. This allows STEM students to apply learning into usable knowledge.
  • Pathways to change, or how the institutions discovered the best ways to change to deliver outstanding science education curriculum to its students.

While a traditional school of science-education thought may have been that science is best taught in a science-only curriculum, more and more studies are showing that science-education, based in a liberal arts setting, is actually producing superior STEM students.

“I think we have a distinct advantage teaching at a liberal arts college because colleges like ours put an emphasis on integrating knowledge across disciplines,” Davidson said. “Scientists who are able to make connections across disciplinary boundaries, are typically the ones responsible for making breakthroughs.”

The eleven Capstone Institutions, chosen because of their long-standing history of HHMI funding, include three historically black colleges and universities (Morehouse, Spelman, and Xavier University of Louisiana) and five single-sex colleges (one men’s college, Morehouse, and four women’s colleges—Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Smith, and Spelman). Capstones are situated in locales ranging from large cities (Barnard, CUNY Hunter, Morehouse, Spelman, and Xavier) to suburban (Bryn Mawr, Hope, Smith, and Swarthmore) and the rural Midwest (Carleton and Grinnell).

The overarching goal in producing this web-based project is to support others aiming to adopt, adapt, or create similar programs, in an effort to improve higher education for all students.

For more information on changes underway in higher education visit SERC’s web portal of resources.