Jeanne's Challenge, which formed the charge for the working groups...

My challenge in Providence was—what if we could glean from the individual stories of the campuses assemble a collective understanding (quoting Lewis Thomas) about what works and what does not in scaling/sustaining a robust undergraduate STEM learning environment in the context of liberal learning?

With this memo, I invite your reflections on how we might proceed in this collaborative writing project. A proposed approach:

· Members of the writing team identify which of the potential themes are of greatest personal interest/reflect personal expertise. Potential themes (from my review) include:
o Articulating clear goals and outcomes for STEM student learning across the community that are reflected in how STEM programs and courses are shaped, implemented, and assessed at the institutional level
o Shaping the STEM learning environment in ways that reflect research on how people learn—specifically in connecting in and out-of-class learning experiences; linking on-campus learning to real-world problems
o Shaping the STEM learning environment in ways that reflect research on how people learn—specifically in giving student ownership of their own learning, in having a range and richness of research-based pedagogies, in having course embedded research projects
o Institutionalizing policies, programs, and practices that nurture, recognize, and reward faculty leaders working to transform the undergraduate STEM learning environment (learning communities, etc.)
o Linking strengthening undergraduate learning in STEM fields to addressing 21st century issues, challenges, and opportunities—serving liberal learning and science equally creatively
o Please suggest other potential themes.

The writing team will determine a work-plan, for example: reviewing abstracts and personal reflections of the sessions to aggregate related sessions; developing a common set of questions and undertake personal phone interviews with selected session leaders.

· Sub-groups will prepare drafts, with interview excerpts, citations listed, etc.