NIU is establishing a new transdisciplinary research cluster to advance and promote collaborative research across disciplines that educate and study learning in the STEM fields.
The commitment is responsive to the university’s multiyear focus on promoting transdisciplinary scholarship and delivers on objectives articulated in the 2022 and 2023 University Goals, most specifically, NIU’s intention to empower, support and incentivize teams to pursue transdisciplinary initiatives that frame research questions with multiple lenses and seek to alleviate inequitable conditions.
The new cluster, titled the Transdisciplinary Research Incubator for STEM Education, or T-RISE, builds upon NIU’s existing investment in faculty members who are focused on research related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. The initiative will include activities to welcome faculty across the university and cultivate transdisciplinary teams.
The ultimate aim is to create a sustainable model for a Center for Transdisciplinary Research in STEM Education within five years.
Associate Professor Nicole LaDue works with a student in her GEOL120 class.
T-RISE will be led by an interdisciplinary team from across NIU’s colleges, with Nicole LaDue, an associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, serving as director, and Ximena Burgin, an assistant professor in the College of Education, serving as deputy director. An executive board will include representation from NIU’s other colleges, including Professor Brianno Coller from Engineering and Engineering Technology and Professor Melani Duffrin from Health and Human Sciences.
“STEM education research is transdisciplinary by nature,” President Lisa C. Freeman said. “It requires the expertise of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, social scientists and humanities researchers to identify complex solutions to issues of inequity, change the culture and practice of STEM, and develop expertise for the workforce of the future.”
An initial $300,000 university investment will support:
- incubation of transdisciplinary STEM education research projects;
- faculty innovation through workshops and other events designed to increase capacity for extramurally funded STEM education research;
- leadership activities aimed at coordinating activities across colleges; and
- creation of a STEM education research center model.
By December, the research cluster’s leadership hopes to announce a lineup of planned meetings, guest speakers and workshop opportunities for faculty.
“We believe engagement in this transdisciplinary research will attract diverse faculty who conduct innovative research across disciplines,” said LaDue, whose research areas include studying the importance of social support from peer groups in STEM. “This cluster will provide spaces and opportunities for people to build teams and STEM education research projects across campus.”
Burgin, who conducts research in culturally responsive teaching, said she is thrilled to be helping to lead the initiative.
“Transdisciplinary research encourages collaborative work across different fields and offers invaluable insights from diverse perspectives,” she said. “Its multidimensional nature makes transdisciplinary work an invigorating and essential approach to advancing knowledge.”
Producing STEM graduates and broadening participation in STEM among underrepresented groups have become national priorities, increasing the emphasis on student retention and success.
“This initiative is all about teaching innovation and designing and studying how we can be more effective in STEM education at NIU and beyond,” LaDue said. “T-RISE will create an environment where people who want to work on STEM education research projects can meet and grow their work. We do not have specific projects in mind, but rather we hope to support the success of faculty-designed and driven projects.”
STEM fields yield high-paying jobs that improve the social mobility of students. But women, first-generation college students, people with disabilities and Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native people broadly remain underrepresented in many STEM fields when compared to their overall distribution in the U.S. population.
More research is needed to help diversify STEM fields, LaDue said.
“NIU has a diverse population, with high percentages of first-generation and underserved students,” she said. “We have an opportunity to grow diversity in STEM fields, and we want to make sure we’re teaching them in the most cutting-edge ways. Our students need us, and we need them.”
NIU already has an impressive record of attracting external funding for STEM programs, including:
- A $1.45 million National Science Foundation grant to fund scholarships for future science teachers.
- A $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to NIU and the University of Illinois Chicago to provide classroom training and research opportunities in computational high energy physics.
- $1.5 million in Congressionally directed funding to the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology for modernization of its Microelectronic Research and Development Lab, providing new STEM opportunities for NIU students.
- A $250,000 NSF award for the acquisition of a cutting-edge microscope that will bolster university research and STEM training of students in the life sciences and engineering.
- A $703,000 NSF award for prairie restoration research that also includes an exchange program with San Diego State University. The exchange seeks to expose underrepresented students in the sciences to research projects, paths to graduate school and a network of supportive peers from other universities.
- A $1.6 million Illinois State Board of Education grantto provide professional development in math pedagogy to 160 teachers from Rockford and the Sauk Valley area.
- A $930,000 National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award for expansion of the FoodMASTER initiative to K-12 science education. FoodMASTER uses food as a tool to teach mathematics and science.
- A $1 million NSF grant to support low-income STEM students.
The university is also well positioned to win significantly more in federal and private foundation funding to study mechanisms to improve STEM learning.
NIU has a core group of STEM discipline-based education researchers in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who first proposed this initiative in 2020. T-RISE will amplify this work by fostering natural partnerships with faculty in the Colleges of Education, Engineering and Engineering Technology, and Health and Human Sciences.
“These colleges currently have the biggest footprints in STEM ed research,” LaDue said. “But as we plan T-RISE activities, including project incubator meetings and proposal-writing workshops, we will work to ensure equity across campus.”
Projects fostered by T-RISE will fall within three overarching STEM-focused research themes: science of learning, equity and pedagogical innovation.
The science of learning includes research on STEM expertise development and mechanisms of learning and motivation. Research on equity includes studies of the socio-cultural dimensions of learning, teaching and institutional climate. Research on STEM pedagogical reform could overlap with the other themes but includes a focus on the classroom teaching and learning context.
“Student experiences in their STEM programs will be enriched by this effort,” LaDue said. “Our own research will benefit our students in their classes and during the research experiences they receive.”
