Graduate Students
The Graduate Minor in College STEM Education is designed for graduate students planning to pursue careers that involve teaching a STEM discipline at the college level. It will provide graduate students (master's and Ph.D.) in any science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) discipline an avenue for obtaining academic preparation for teaching their major discipline at the college level.
For master's students, 9 credit hours of graduate courses drawn from the courses listed below. For Ph.D. students, 15 credit hours of graduate courses drawn from the courses listed below. For this interdisciplinary minor, students should take a combination of courses from at least two different departments listed below that meets their career-related teaching interests. After completing their coursework for the minor, students will also be required to pass a comprehensive exam in the form of a teaching statement, which will be scored by three members of the graduate minor committee.
For more information, contact Matthew Van Den Broeke, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, at mvandenbroeke2@unl.edu.
| DEPARTMENT | COURSES |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication | ALEC 805: Advanced Teaching Strategies (3 credits) |
| ALEC 905: Practicum in Postsecondary Teaching (1 credit; pre-req.: ALEC 805 or equivalent) | |
| Agronomy | AGRO 832: Learning Plant Science (3 credits) |
| Chemistry | CHEM 898: sect. 2: Evidence-Based Teaching Methods for the Postsecondary classroom (3 credits) |
| CHEM 898: sect. 4: Practicum in Chemistry Teaching (3 credits) | |
| Earth and Atmospheric Sciences | |
| GEOS 811: STEM Education Seminar (1 credit), which may be taken up to three times for credit toward the minor | |
| SCIL 888/AGRI 888: Teaching Undergraduate Science (1 credit) | |
| Educational Psychology | EDPS 854: Human Cognition and Instruction (3 credits) |
| EDPS 961: Cognitive Development (3 credits) | |
| Engineering | ENGR 834: Framing STEM Education Research (3 credits) |
| ENGR 844: Theory in STEM Education Research (3 credits) | |
| Entomology | ENTO 830: Introduction to the Development of Distance Education Courses (3 credits) |
| Psychology | PSYC 941: Fundamentals of Research Design and Data Analysis 1 (3 credits) |
| PSYC 942: Fundamentals of Research Design and Data Analysis 2 (3 credits) | |
| Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education | TEAC 880: Teaching with Technology (1-3 credits)* |
| TEAC 902: Education Policy and Practice Special Topics-Higher Education (1-3 credits)* | |
| TEAC 936: Seminar in College Teaching (1-3 credits)* |
*These 1-to-3 credit courses may be taken for up to a total of 3 credits each to be applied toward the minor.
Faculty
As follows are the names of faculty who are able to serve as minor representatives on committees:
- Mark Burbach, School of Natural Resources
- Brian Couch, School of Biological Sciences
- Joseph Dauer, School of Natural Resources
- Jenny Keshwani, Biological Systems Engineering
- Dawn Kopacz, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
- Donald Lee, Agronomy and Horticulture
- Matthew Van Den Broeke, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
CTT: The DBER community is interested in providing a variety of professional development opportunities. Our research efforts aim at improving students’ experiences in STEM classrooms and as such we engage in various professional development activities to support instructors in these learning environments. Learn more about the staff in the Center for Transformative Teaching who provide leadership and support for the enrichment of teaching and learning by focusing on evidence-based pedagogy, best practices, and the appropriate integration of learning technology in online, blended, and face-to-face classrooms.
Undergraduate Students
UCARE: Research projects in the UCARE program range from studying switchgrass plants grown for biofuel to identifying and cataloging the poems of Walt Whitman, from exploring the effects of background noise on productivity to creating textiles made of corn. The UCARE program is supported by generous gifts from the Pepsi Quasi Endowment and Union Bank & Trust.