About the InTeGrate Project

InTeGrate is a 5-year, NSF-funded STEP Center grant, running from 2012 through 2016. The STEP program (STEM Talent Expansion Program) enables "a group of faculty representing a cross section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities that will be carried out to address that challenge or opportunity within a national context."

The first goal of the project is to develop curricula that will dramatically increase geoscience literacy of all undergraduate students. This includes the large majority of students that do not major in the geosciences, those who are historically under-represented in the geosciences, and future K-12 teachers, such that they are better positioned to make sustainable decisions in their lives and as part of the broader society.

The second major goal is to increase the number of majors in the geosciences and associated fields who are able to work with other scientists, social scientists, business people, and policy makers to develop viable solutions to current and future environmental and resource challenges.

Achieving these goals requires a revolution in how geoscience education is perceived and practiced by geoscientists, as well as the roles that the geosciences play in the broader curriculum in institutions of higher education. Connecting geoscience education to societal challenges has the potential to increase enrollment in geoscience and allied courses, thus strengthening the field while serving society.

To start this revolution, an integrated, community-based approach combines the following elements:

1) Developing teaching materials and evaluation of new teaching resources and instructional strategies,

2) Implementation programs to incorporate geoscience throughout the curriculum,

3) Professional development and dissemination strategies to promote widespread adoption of these new approaches.

4) Assessment and Project Evaluation ensure that the materials and programs developed by the program effectively meet their stated goals and objects, and that project activities in aggregate meet the overarching goals of the project.

The 2011 NSF award included two STEP Center awards, one in the geosciences and one in engineering (the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)).

See the NSF STEP Center Solicitation

• Project Summary (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 143kB Jun26 11)
• Press Release from NSF
• Carleton News story about the InTeGrate grant
• NSF Presentation 1/19/2012 (PowerPoint 3.4MB Jan21 12)

This work is sponsored by the following organizations: