Success through Transformative Education and Active Mentoring (STEAM) is a First in the World (FITW) grant project, funded by the United States Department of Education.

As FITW grantees, we have been charged with researching and testing strategies for bringing post-secondary education in the United States back to being First in the World. 

Grant number:  P116F140459.

Our project at Purdue University, STEAM, is a study based on our successful course-transformation program Instruction Matters: Purdue’s Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT).

Through the use of experimental and control sections, we aim to empirically demonstrate that a more student-centered learning environment leads to benefits such as greater learning, higher grades, and higher rates of student retention in the major and the university.

Project Manager
Dr. Jennifer D. Moss (moss16@purdue.edu)

Early analyses from semesters of Calculus I and II show that, in transformed sections, when faculty support students autonomy and competence, students earn higher grades, when com- pared to business-as-usual sections.

Students in traditional Calculus sections attend typical lecture and recitation sections. In the transformed Calculus sections, students watch video lectures before class and use that time to work on carefully crafted problem sets with faculty, teaching assistant, and peers.

In the transformed sections of these calculus classes, the rate of students earning D and F grades dropped by 5 %. This means more students are able to continue in their major without re-taking courses, saving them money and keeping them on-track for a 4-year graduation.