A Model for Institutional Transformation through Interdisciplinary STEM Partnerships to Support Student Transfer of Mathematical Knowledge

About This Grant

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing STEM courses that will prepare students to apply knowledge from mathematics courses to other disciplines. Undergraduate students are increasingly asked to make connections and articulate problems from disciplines outside of mathematics in quantitative terms. College faculty also need to understand and meet the changing educational needs of students, and most institutions have limited resources to address this critical challenge. The National Consortium for Synergistic Undergraduate Mathematics via Multi-institutional Interdisciplinary Teaching Partnerships (SUMMIT-P) has been working since 2016 to address these issues by forming and strengthening faculty partnerships across disciplines and institutions. These partnerships have reduced the separation between disciplines, resulting in undergraduate courses that make explicit connections between mathematics and numerous other disciplines. This Level 2 IUSE Institutional and Community Transformation project, led by West Virginia University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Western Michigan University, includes approximately 40 new institutions that will adapt the SUMMIT-P model to form local faculty teams. The SUMMIT-P team plans to study the experiences of students in these revised courses while also collaborating with national professional societies to ensure the long-term sustainability of the consortium’s work, significantly expanding the scope and positive impact of SUMMIT-P to thousands of additional college students. The goal of this project is to assist institutions with the adaptation of a known model for developing and implementing cross-disciplinary STEM courses. The project will also work to broadly disseminate the SUMMIT-P model to institutions beyond the intended 40 project participants. The project will support the development of sustainable collaborations that aim to minimize traditional disciplinary silos. Additionally, the proposed work will advance understanding of the student experience in these interdisciplinary courses, using previous student outcomes in SUMMIT-P courses combined with new data focused on long-term student impact. The project’s research plan is designed to advance understanding of how choices made by institution-based teams affect positive impact of the change process, as well as the institutional qualities and resources that are critical to lasting change. Additionally, the research team plans to study the effectiveness of faculty partnerships formed using SUMMIT-P change processes in creating significant and lasting curricular change that results in positive long-term student impact. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.