The STEM Minor

The College of St. Catherine has received $240,000 from the 3M Foundation for the development of a STEM (Science, Technology, Enginnering and Mathematics) minor primarily for elementary education majors. The goal of the project is to improve the scientific literacy of elementary teachers, who are at the vanguard of efforts to confront the crisis in science and mathematics education in classrooms across the nation. Dr. Tony Murphy has served as Project Coordinator as faculty from Biology, Chemistry, Education, Geography, Mathematics and Physics have joined the STEM minor development team. CSC faculty have immersed themselves in research on STEM, curriculum design, learning theories and teacher preparation and have developed the content, pedagogical design and evaluation techniques for the individual STEM minor courses. CSC has also partnered with staff from the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics at the University of Minnesota. The fourth course of the STEM minor is slated to launch in September of 2007.

The development of the STEM minor has drawn on the collaborative efforts of faculty and staff from across the college as well as external partners. Thanks to the following individuals who have contributed: