Photo by Erik Andersen

CHAPEL HILL – Extra focus on undergraduate education in science will be the result of a $500,000 grant recently received by UNC.

The initiative, undertaken by the Association of American Universities, will be spread over the next five years and aims to have more students stick with science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, majors.

Senior associate dean of natural sciences at UNC, Michael Crimmins, says a large number of students who join intending to be STEM majors end up changing their field of study.

“About 50 percent of students that enter the university intend to be STEM majors. And only about high 30s end up graduating as STEM majors, so we’re losing a significant portion of students,” Crimmins says. “And the evidence indicates that we’re losing them in the first introductory courses where they aren’t performing very well.”

The changes UNC is making to its STEM courses involves “flipping” the classroom–a method that moves away from lecturing and encourages students to lean the information on their own through textbooks and other materials. Then they apply what they learned in class.

The flipped classroom approach has been used in UNC STEM classes before and Crimmins says, especially in an introductory biology class taught by senior lecturer Kelly Hogan, that approach was highly successful.

“She saw an even more significant improvement of underrepresented minorities,” Crimmins says. “African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans performed much better than they had in the traditional lecture course.”

Crimmins says the flipped classroom approach has also been applied to some physics courses, where the results were positive as well.

Carolina will receive the $500,000 grant, as part of a donation by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to the AAU, over the next three years. The university is also committing more than $1.2 million of its own funds to this initiative.

Related Stories
‹
'Girls Talk Math' Encourages Young Women to Pursue Careers in Mathematics
In today’s workforce, women hold about 21 percent of technical jobs. They hold 32 percent of computer-systems design jobs, and in 2015 they made up 12 percent of engineering jobs, according to a survey. These statistics are what two UNC graduate students had in mind when developing “Girls Talk Math” last year. It’s a day […]
Special Cohort of UNC Students to Graduate Sunday
Sierra Atwater is a senior at UNC. She’s local, from Pittsboro. Like other students, she’s graduating on Sunday with a bachelor of science in biology and a chemistry minor. But unlike many other students, she’s graduating with a cohort of carefully chosen students, called Chancellor’s Science Scholars or CSS. She began the program during the […]
UNC Awarded STEM Grant
The Howard Hughes Medical Institution (HHMI) has awarded $7.75 million to UNC in order to increase and diversify the number of students that can participate in the fields of science, technology, economics, and mathematics, or STEM fields.
UNC Hospitals Names Former UVA Medical Center Leader as Incoming President
UNC Health announced on Tuesday its selection of Min Lee to become president of UNC Hospitals later this summer.
On Air Today: Advancing 'Self-Regulated Learning' in the Age of AI, with UNC's Jeffrey Greene
Aaron welcomes UNC education professor Jeffrey Greene, whose research focuses on the importance of "self-regulated learning."
Former N.C. House Representative Dr. Kristin Baker Appointed to UNC Board of Trustees
The UNC System's Board of Governors approved Dr. Kristin Baker of Cabarrus County during its meeting on May 21, selecting the psychiatrist to fill the seat left by John Preyer's resignation.
'Region of Death for Everybody Else': UNC Baseball Fired Up After Regional Sweep
The Diamond Heels were not impressed with the prognostications of a difficult regional weekend in Chapel Hill.
UNC Baseball Defeats East Carolina Again, Advances to Super Regionals
The Diamond Heels scored eight runs in the first three innings and got four innings of no-hit relief from Jackson Rose in a 9-3 win against East Carolina Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. UNC has now advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for a third consecutive season. 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐘'𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐃 🥳 For the third straight […]
UNC Baseball in the 2026 NCAA Regionals: How to Watch, Cord-Cutting Options and Start Times
The Diamond Heels will host a regional at Boshamer Stadium for the third consecutive year this weekend. UNC is the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and is looking to return to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha for the second time in three years. If you aren’t attending this weekend’s games […]
Greek Prospect Alexandros Samodurov Commits to UNC Men's Basketball
Another international prospect is making his way to Chapel Hill. Alexandros Samodurov, who has played professionally in Greece since 2022, announced his commitment to head coach Michael Malone and UNC Saturday. Samodurov, a 6-foot-11 forward, has played his entire professional career with the Greek club Panathinaikos. The club has seen sustained success during his time […]
›