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Advancing STEM Excellence

We value undergraduate teaching as a joyful, scholarly part of instructors’ work and a crucial service to society. We empower educators to continually improve their courses, departments and all of UT.

The STEMx Portfolio of Activities

  • Faculty Development in Teaching

    STEMx offers a range of opportunities for faculty to explore timely topics in undergraduate education, engage with promising practices in teaching and connect with each other. The constellation of STEMx professional development for CNS faculty includes:

    • Course Design Institute
    • Learning Lunches and other teaching workshops
    • Teaching Discovery Days, an annual opportunity for classroom observations, discussions about teaching and celebrating excellence in the classroom
    • Mentoring for Success in Teaching for new faculty

    Current faculty: Use EID login to see details

  • Expert Teaching Assessment 

    STEMx develops and implements the CNS expert teaching assessment program. A dozen CNS faculty fellows are trained in how to observe teaching, review course materials, provide feedback in conversation and write summative reports. Departments send teams of faculty to the STEMx training, and these teams subsequently lead committees charged with improving peer-review processes in their departments. STEMx is also participating, with the Department of Nutritional Sciences, in a three-year national learning community focused on evaluation of STEM teaching at R1 universities; this is sponsored by the Association of American Universities (AAU).

  • Pathway Grants

    The Pathways Grants Program is an annual internal funding mechanism open to all  tenured, tenure-track and professional-track faculty in Natural Sciences who want to introduce new teaching methods in their own undergraduate courses and expand their contribution to the undergraduate education mission. Special solicitations may target priority or timely topics in teaching, such as applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. Pathways Grants recipients learn from and support each other in a community supported by STEMx.

  • Academic Technology

    The College of Natural Sciences (CNS) Academic Technology Committee, chaired by the CNS Leadership Fellow, researches priority issues at the intersection of technology and teaching, recommending solutions to pressing issues.

  • Training in Teaching and Mentoring

    For Undergraduate Course Assistants & Graduate Teaching Assistants
    STEMx offers foundational training for undergraduate course assistants and graduate teaching assistants leading up to fall and spring terms. First-time UGCAs complete an essential Canvas module, have access to resources in two additional Canvas modules, and participate in one two-hour workshop. TAs have a similar program that includes asynchronous resources on Canvas and a two-hour workshop ahead of each long term.

    Advanced professional development for graduate students & postdocs
    STEMx also offers the Concentration in Teaching and Mentoring for graduate students and postdocs who want to prepare to teach as instructor-of-record and mentor researchers. The concentration is available asynchronously on Canvas or as a set of three courses.

  • Special Projects

    STEMx applies substantial experience and proven success in STEM teaching, research, program development, group facilitation and implementation to support large-scale teaching projects, such as College of Natural Sciences laboratory course redesigns, development of high-throughput courses, production of open education student success materials and other high-impact undergraduate-focused efforts.