Ball State looks to education for STEM advancement

To meet the demands for stronger science, technology, engineering and math programs – and to increase elgibility for state funding – Ball State is relying upon one of its traditional strengths – teaching.

“What Ball State is really good at is preparing STEM educators for K through 12,” said Terry King, provost and vice president for academic affairs. ”In fact, one of the first years I was here, our physics department graduated more physics majors who were focused on physics teaching, than any other school in the country.”

Since demand for STEM skills has increased globally, states, including Indiana, have tied additional funding opportunities to graduation rates in related STEM fields, which has been a challenge for traditionally-liberal arts institutions like Ball State.

However, the lack of STEM graduates nationwide is not entirely the fault of universities, but rather a product of not enough attention to STEM earlier in life, King said.

“The limiting factor is how many students coming out of high school that are capable of starting off in these mathematics heavy, science heavy disciplines,” he said.

In 2000, the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century evaluated the future of STEM in the U.S. This report, called the Glenn Commission Report, points out the problem with STEM in America is primary education, not necessarily secondary.

The report found shortages in qualified STEM teachers in the majority of middle and high schools; this number was around 80 percent and 90 percent for urban schools. It said shortages are likely to grow with the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation.

“It’s about having competent elementary school teachers who are teaching the fundamentals in math and science and exciting students, and then getting middle school students about math and sciences is where the limiting factors are,” King said.

In combination with the findings of the report and Ball State’s tradition as a teaching institution, a remedy for Ball State is promotion of STEM education majors, King said.

Ball State initially opened as a school to train teachers in 1918.

Students at Ball State who are pursing a career in education in STEM-related fields are considered STEM, because their awarded degree is in that field.

Outside of educating the next generation of STEM teachers, projects such as the new Charles W. Brown Planetarium could further increase the university’s STEM footprint.

“We just got a new planetarium and it would be really interesting to pair that with a whole major in astronomy,” said Bill Knight, assistant provost of institutional effectiveness. “To do that, we would have to talk about more faculty and more facilities, and it’s not clear where the money would come from.”

Some of the money for such an expansion could come from the state.

The current biennial budget request to Indiana’s legislature has $62.5 million for the creation of the College of Health Sciences and Professions building and Cooper Science’s renovations.

“One would think that would be related to increasing majors in those areas, graduates in those areas and potentially increasing the faculty in those areas,” Knight said.

However, Marilyn Buck, dean of university college, said the main purpose of the college is to consolidate the different health majors, and make them coordinate more efficiently.

In the past decade, enrollment in chemistry programs has grown by 21 percent, biology by 9 percent, and nursing by 47 percent, according to the university’s 2015-17 budget request. Even with Ball State’s plan for STEM growth, Knight said state support hinges on what is considered important at the time and how the state chooses to evaluate the university.

“Well, just cause it’s in our plan, doesn’t mean there is money for it,” Knight said. “The problem is if you gear and hire faculty and build buildings and all of a sudden if we no longer get the funding in that area, we’ve made quite an investment on our end that may not pay off.”

A segment of state funding for Ball State is determined by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s formula for performance-based funding, which takes into account factors like on-time graduations and high-impact degree completion. High-impact is an umbrella term used by the state to describe what fields it considers STEM.

There is no nationally defined term for what STEM is, and it is often determined by each different governmental agency as necessary. Indiana’s definition, in the area of education, does not include health-related fields like nursing.

Ball State still considers certain programs STEM that the state does not.

However, the list of what the state considers high impact is subject to change. At the request of the university, ICHE has agreed to include natural resources and environmental management, animation, digital production emerging media, digital production audio, digital production video options within the telecommunications major and a master’s degree in computer software engineering.

The university is also pursuing more unnamed programs for its academic master plan. Some of proposed degrees will be presented Nov. 13 at the next meeting of ICHE at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

King said it’s important to still focus on the university’s other strengths, and not just STEM.

“It’s unfortunate people talk about STEM in a big way,” he said. “I mean it is [big], but it’s only a small part of what the university does.”

Ten years from now, there won’t be a noticeable difference in Ball State even if it did increase STEM degree and program offerings by 10 percent, King said. Science can’t exist without philosophy —the humanities.

“The concept is that with science and technology today we can do fabulous things. We can heal people, you can do things nobody ever imagined, but you can kill, pollute and destroy,” King said. “It is the context from society that is built around the humanities, the arts and the social sciences, that give liveliness in the science and technologies that allow us to do things in the right way.”

Editor's note: This is part of a series on the state of STEM efforts at Ball State University.

Read More

Man who self-immolated outside Manhattan courthouse where Trump trial is adjourned pronounced dead

By Staff Reports / 1 hours ago

Azzarello was initially extinguished and rushed away by emergency services. He was in critical condition at Weill Cornell Medicine - Burn Center, according to a press conference held by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

---

Stretch of cooler temperatures entering into the weekend

By Evan Reed / 8 hours ago

Weather Forecaster Evan Reed has the latest on the continuing cooler temperatures next week.

---

‘The program is still alive:’ Wapahani baseball defeats Alexandria on Raiders’ special night

By Zach Carter / 11 hours ago

After having multiple ceremonies before the game, Wapahani baseball defeated Alexandria 4-2. Raiders' starting pitcher Kayson Perdue threw a complete game with six strikeouts.