National and local initiatives focused on the transformation of STEM teaching in higher education have multiplied over the last decade. These initiatives often focus on measuring change in instructional practices, but it is difficult to monitor such change without a national picture of STEM educational practices, especially as characterized by common observational instruments. We characterized a snapshot of this landscape by conducting the first large scale observation-based study. We found that lecturing was prominent throughout the undergraduate STEM curriculum, even in classrooms with infrastructure designed to support active learning, indicating that further work is required to reform STEM education. Additionally, we established that STEM faculty’s instructional practices can vary substantially within a course, invalidating the commonly-used teaching evaluations based on a one-time observation.

This paper presents the development and evaluation of a novel course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) for use in introductory biology contexts. Results indicate statistically significant gains in CURE students’ content knowledge, attitudes, and motivation in the discipline relative to a matched comparison group.

This study examines the impact of different active-learning strategies—graphic organizers and worksheets compared with clicker-based case studies—in an introductory biology course. Data reveal the differential effects of these strategies on students’ conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in biology.

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