Mark Graham
Yale University, CT·Education Research
Many students leave STEM majors, often after struggling in passive lecture courses or feeling unsupported. Research shows that active, collaborative and hands-on research learning boosts interest, motivation and learning, yet these methods spread slowly.
- Fields
Education Research
Social Science
Biology
- Topics
STEM education
undergraduate education
course-based undergraduate research experience
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2031
What they work on
- Identify which teaching practices in SEA-PHAGES courses, where students discover bacteria-infecting viruses, build student trust, buy-in and persistence in STEM, using mixed-methods study of instructors and administrators.
- Compare instructor and administrator views of effective practices with student views and align them with pathway models of the SEA-PHAGES program to plan wider adoption.
- Evaluate a system-wide effort across SUNY combining faculty professional development, peer networks and institutional policy changes to spread active, collaborative teaching, determining what works and why some levers fall short.
More about the research
Two projects study how to make effective teaching work and how to make it stick. One looks inside a successful research course to find what makes it work. The other studies change across a whole state university system.
Why it matters
Identifying which teaching practices keep students in STEM, and how institutions can support them, could help colleges retain more students, especially those who leave after passive lectures. Findings could guide faculty training, research course design and reform of undergraduate STEM education at other universities and state systems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: Translating Research on How People Learn and Organizations Change to Accelerate Adoption of High Impact Practices Throughout a State University System
NSF · Jan 2027 – Dec 2031
Expanding Upon Successes of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Strategic Analysis of Student and Instructor Outcomes for Larger Scale Implementation
NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2028
Closest labs
Melanie Will Cole
Central New Mexico Community College, NM·Education Research
Implement and examine a hybrid undergraduate research experience that combines a course-based research class with a stipend-supported apprenticeship, enrolling ten place-bound students per year in a year-long series of special project courses.
Nia Bauer
Arapahoe Community College, CO·Education Research
Develop course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) of variable length for biology courses and labs and for three non-biology courses, with a shared repository of curricula for in-person, hybrid and remote teaching.
Melanie Van Stry
Lane College, TN·Education Research
Redesign foundational STEM courses at an HBCU with active learning and course-based research, and train faculty in these teaching methods.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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