Andrew Heckler, OSU Professor of Physics specializing in Physics Education Research, was awarded in Sept 2023, two NSF grants (PI on one $600k), co-PI on the other (OSU portion $180k)), that support further research, development and application of the STEM Fluency learning application.

Professor Heckler also created (in Summer 2023) a non-profit corporation STEM Fluency Inc. which owns the question bank but licenses SF application software from OSU. SF Inc is created to more widely distribute SF to other institutions and continue to improve and develop SF.

STEM Fluency is an online learning application aimed at improving the fluency (meaning both accuracy and speed) in skills essential for success in STEM courses. Fluency practice aims to reduce the cognitive load in doing fundamental STEM skills, allowing students to solve more complex STEM problems. The application combines two areas of research:

1. principles of learning from the learning sciences that are known to improve learning:

a. mastery practice (practice until you reach a goal, e.g. 4 correct in a row)

b. spaced (aka distributed) practice (space the practices for a given throughout the semester to improve retention)

c. interleaving (intermixing the practice of several skills in one session)

d. Concrete and abstract representations: used to facilitate learning and transfer of learning to new situations

2. STEM education research:

a. Research on specific student needs and areas of difficulty in fundamental skills important for STEM

b. Iteratively design-implement- assess-evaluate to produce high quality practice questions.

STEM Fluency facts:

• Over 30,000 students have used SF, at 15 institutions, answering over 12 million questions

• Research-based question bank with over 10,000 questions and 200 skills categories including Introductory physics (100), second -year physics (25), upper level quantum mechanics (60) introductory chemistry (35) and intermediate astrophysics (10)

• Used in OSU introductory physics courses and 2nd year physics majors as graded assignments since 2016. Has also been used in Gen Chemistry at OSU and an astrophysics course at OSU

• Effectiveness documented by research in peer-reviewed journal articles often showing dramatic gains in accuracy and speed. SF is also effective at closing the skills gap for less-prepared and historically marginalize students

• An NSF award in 2019 and another in 2023 directly fund SF research, development, and dissemination (total = 1.2 M). Two other NSF awards (one at 2021 at BGSU and the other is 2023, Heckler is co-PI) use SF as the delivery tool for continued research on student learning

• SF originally started as “Essential Skills” but the branding changed to go beyond OSU, since “Essential Skills” was already used by another organization

• The STEM Fluency non-profit is just beginning, and we are seeking funding to establish a presence and grow to other institutions. SF is interested in maintaining free (or very low cost) access, especially for underserved students

• STEM Fluency/Essential Skills started with an Education, research, and outreach project funded by the NSF CEM. Then in 2014 Heckler was awarded an OSU ODEE Impact grant to expand. The OAA and department of Physics also provided funds to continue its growth. Finally, SF benefited from substantial IT support from Terry Bradley, Bryan Dunlap, and the folks (and director) at ASC tech. All of these people and funds made SF possible

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