Volume IV: What works, what matters, what lasts

What Works: Serving All Students

Institutions intent upon ensuring the success of all students:

• expect all students to prosper in the study of these fields
• have graduation requirements expressing expectations of the level of scientific/technological/quantitative literacy of their graduates
• provide adequate resources to build and sustain an inquiry-based learning environment
• make a 'full court' press in identifying and addressing problems and opportunities
• reward those whose work attracts student interest and motivates them to persist and succeed.

Departments and programs intent upon ensuring the success of all students:

• understand key questions to ask in designing programs
• know the impact of introductory courses on student persistence or attrition
• have different points for students to enter into their course of study
• monitor impact of existing and experimental pedagogies on student learning
• have a coherent sequence of departmental offerings for majors.

Faculty working to ensure the success of all students:

• are passionate about their vocation and wish for students to understand and share that passion
• take responsibility for serving students with different backgrounds, learning styles and careers aspirations
• respect cognitive science findings as they develop curricula
• engage in research projects easily integrated into the learning experience of majors.

Connections that serve to enrich the success of all students:

• bring faculty from together around issues of what students should know and where and when during their academic career it should be learned.

Spaces that attract and serve all students:

• are open and welcoming at all times to students
• enable flexible scheduling and use by students with different learning styles
• are themselves laboratories for learning
• serve the entire campus community
• reflect an understanding of the central role that science and mathematics play in 21st century educational programs.