What is the New Traditions Project?
The official title for the New Traditions Project is "Establishing New
Traditions: Revitalizing the Curriculum". The NT project evolved over the
1993 and 1994 academic years in response to a call for proposals on
"Revitalizing the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum" put forth by the
Division
of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation. In
November of
1994 the NSF announced funding of four proposals: the University of
Wisconsin-Madison
Consortium NT Curriculum Project, the California-AtlantaCurriculum
Project, the ChemLinks Curriculum Project,
and the CUNY Curriculum
Project. Funding for the NT Project is provided under contract #DUE-9455928
for 1995-1997.
This project, which is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
involves
a broad consortium of colleges and universities. Schools involved
in the consortium include the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Franklin
and Marshall College,
College of the Holy Cross, University of
Illinois-Urbana, Madison Area Technical College, and San Jose State University.
Educators at other institutions are involved with various subprojects.
The NT project is organized into six major efforts:
Student-Focused Active Learning/Student Involvement
Guided Inquiry/Open-Ended Labs
Interdisciplinary Course Clusters
Topic Oriented Approach
Information Technology/Computer Tools
Evaluation Dissemination
Management of the project is directed by The Leadership Team, a
multidisciplinary
group of twelve educators representing five universities and colleges. The
director and PI for the NT project is Professor John Moore of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Oversight of the project activities is
provided by a National Visiting Committee comprising thirteen educators
and industrial leaders of national prominence.
The goals of the NT Project:
- modify the curriculum so that it will better meet the needs of a
clientele that includes academia, industry, and society as a whole
- collaborate with colleagues in other disciplines and other
institutions and with students to identify or develop, implement, and
evaluate a variety of new models, approaches, and materials that will
lead to improved learning and understanding
- carry out a series of curricular experiments at all course levels
and at a
variety of types of institutions that will integrate reforms with the
best of
our current curriculum and rigorously evaluate new approaches
- package proven innovations into a series of modular, evolutionary
changes
that can be individualized to meet the needs of students, teaching
institutions, and individual faculty members, thereby allowing change to be
incorporated easily into chemistry programs
- develop a dissemination process by which curricular and pedagogical
reforms
created and validated at one institution can be adapted by a variety of
others
in ways that support continuous incremental improvement and reward both
creators and adaptors
- begin a process of modifying the culture of chemistry and the
cultures of
departments and institutions so that curriculum development is recognized
as an
important, dynamic, ongoing intellectual activity.