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STEM TRAIL Center approved

  • published: 2019/05/01
STEM TRAIL Center

The STEM TRAIL Center launch event featured Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman and entrepreneur and author Alaina G. Levine (center). Left are STEM Community Chairs Brian Dorn, Computer Science and Patrick Rault, Mathematics. Right are STEM Community Chairs Christine Cutucache, Biology, and Chris Moore, Physics.

In May 2019, the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Post-secondary Education approved the creation of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Teaching, Research and Inquiry-Based Learning (STEM TRAIL) Center, a collaboration among the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Education, and Information Science and Technology.

Christine Cutucache, Haddix Community Chair of Science, center director explains, “This Center brings with it opportunities to support students, faculty, staff, and lifelong learners in our community....In 2012, UNO declaired STEM a strategic priority and since then we’ve worked to build truly transformational, interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving and innovation.”

Key impacts from these interdisciplinary efforts so far include offering STEM Teacher Dual Pathways, an increase in external funding for STEM teacher education, and retention programs such as the Noyce NebraskaSCIENCE and NE STEM 4U.

$1.42M in grants has been awarded through the Center since inception and $12.56M is pending as of December. Upcoming grant funded initiatives include the Teacher-Researcher Partnership Program, now in its fifth year, creating opportunities for teachers to conduct research in collaboration with UNO science faculty.