Union College has been selected as one of ten recipients of the National Science Foundation's Awards for the Integration of Research and Education. The College, the first liberal arts institution to offer an engineering program, has conceptualized a successful General Education (GenEd) curriculum that emphasizes discovery-based learning in a research rich environment consisting of three stages of investigative learning. The GenEd curriculum has been effectively incorporated in the development of a new engineering curriculum, which fosters active learning activities and provides exposure to engineering technologies through research.
The College's efforts to integrate research and education were designed with the following outcomes in mind: developing new courses that rethink the way science is taught at each state of inquiry; creating hands-on inquiry driven laboratory courses for General Education science majors, and engineering courses that incorporate design components; promoting programs that require collaborative efforts among science departments; and providing diverse opportunities for student research.
Union College is being awarded $500,000 to advance institutional goals of integrating research and education, document and disseminate information of its exemplary activities, and expand the integration of research and education by conducting outreach activities over the coming three years. AIRE funds will be used to help engineering faculty develop a series of hands-on engineering courses with laboratory components that stimulate and excite non-engineering students the same way that GenEd science courses for non-science majors have appealed to those students. To encourage minority students interested in pursuing careers in teaching science or engineering at the college level, Union plans to create Minority Post-Baccalaureate Teaching Fellowships which will provide extended opportunities for students to engage in all aspects of the teaching enterprise. In addition, the College will continue to support and promote programs targeted at training elementary through high school teachers in science.
