Who we are
Our Gateway2STEM team is led by faculty in Math, Physics, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Higher Education Program.
We lead teams of faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants to create these new environments in the introductory courses.
Colleagues are always welcome to participate and are updated periodically.
Our Purpose
Gateway-2-STEM is an initiative that grew out of a National Science Foundation funded project that began in Fall 2018. The overall goal is to continue building a culture of active learning in STEM departments at Mason with a focus on transforming gateway classes in Math (113/114), Physics (160/260), and Computer Science (112/211). The targeted courses will influence the educational experience for thousands of students over the duration of the grant, and through diffusion we hope to influence the broader STEM teaching culture at Mason.
Our Goals:
- Build teams of faculty, graduate teaching assistants and undergraduate learning assistants that work to transform introductory courses and create a culture of active learning that will facilitate broad adoption of these techniques.
- Develop an understanding of how a faculty-driven grassroots approach, combined with institutional support, can build a culture of active learning.
- Study strategies to remove barriers for faculty implementing new evidence-based teaching methods.
- Prepare the next generation of STEM educators by involving graduate and undergraduate students in the implementation of active learning in the classroom.
Our research questions:
- How do the tactics outlined in the grassroots change theory help to create sustainable course-level and department-level changes toward the use of inquiry-based learning?
- To what extent do graduate apprentice instructors and undergraduate learning assistants assist in diffusing course-level change to the department or college level?
- How do grassroots tactics, implemented through communities of transformation, interact to diffuse course-, department-, and institution-level change, and to influence organizational learning?
Learn About our Research:
Project Model:
Gateway-2-STEM centers on activities designed and implemented by course-communities of transformation that are designed to change the way targeted courses are taught with the long term goal of diffusing the change more broadly across the institution.
Posters & Presentations
View the presentations and poster we’ve previously presented to learn how we’re changing the way Stem across the institution.
Publications
View our teams research publications to learn how we’re actively changing courses.