Movement to Improve Undergraduate STEM Education Heats up in Arizona Desert Next Month
Tucson, AZ – June 18, 2012 – The movement to improve science education at America’s research universities is likely to gain momentum July 11 to 13 as the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) hosts its 18th Annual Cottrell Scholar Conference in Tucson, AZ. Representatives of the American Association of Universities (AAU), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the New York Academy of Sciences are attending the conference with 50 scholar-educators who have received Cottrell Scholar awards from RCSA. Both the AAU and the NSF have been stressing the need to improve undergraduate education for STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math). Both organizations, as well as others, have been sounding the alarm in recent years regarding rising STEM competencies abroad and the threat it poses to America’s traditional global leadership in science and technology. RCSA Program Director and chair of the conference, Silvia Ronco, said a key objective of the July gathering is to build a community of outstanding scholar-educators who are dedicated to becoming leaders in both research and teaching, and who collectively have the potential to change the way science is taught nationally. She added the conference has a highly interactive format to encourage team building and collaborations. Keynote speakers at the conference include:- Tobin Smith, AAU Vice President for Policy
- Luis Echegoyen, who holds the Welch Chair of Chemistry at the University of Texas El Paso and former director of the NSF Chemistry Division
- Celeste Rohlfing, deputy assistant director of the NSF Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and former assistant director for physical sciences at the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
- Michael Schatz, a Cottrell Scholar and Professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the Georgia Tech Physics Education Research Group
