Using the Curriculum to Introduce Transferable Skill Sets to Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The next generation of scientists will be expected to find innovative solutions to problems that are greater in scale and magnitude than we have ever faced before. Since these challenges will be faced early in an academic career, young scientists will not have the opportunity to develop the necessary skills over a lifetime before they are called upon to lead. To address this gap a partnership has been formed between the leadership studies program and the STEM faculty at Austin College to develop a curriculum of integrated skills in order to prepare our graduates to work on these new scientific frontiers. The STEM Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program at Austin College combines transferrable skill sets from leadership studies with STEM education to produce future leaders of the scientific community. This unique pedagogy pioneered at Austin College embraces the liberal arts tradition by teaching and practicing leadership behaviors through seamless integration into STEM disciplines through multiple courses across the entire curriculum, rather than as a separate course of study. We strive to engage all science students in the study and practice of leadership in their personal and professional lives, and to promote personal, team, and organizational effectiveness in both the classroom and through research. This curriculum is rich in intentional instruction of awareness, ability, and commitment through a complete integration into the existing scientific learning environment. Instruction is layered into courses and laboratory components at every level of the curriculum to give the students multiple opportunities to develop their skills from freshman through senior year. The work presented will give specific examples of how the STAR curriculum enhances the awareness of acting responsibly through the recognition of ethical issues in an undergraduate biochemistry course. Preliminary assessment data from the STAR program demonstrate significant increases in all student learning outcomes through their undergraduate experience. Additionally, no gaps in attainment of leadership behaviors by students have been observed from factors that may typically associate with achievement gaps in STEM (i.e. first generation status, race/ethnicity, or gender).Support or Funding InformationFinancial support for this project was provided in part by a grant from the W. M. Keck FoundationThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.