SEISMIC Phase Two (2025 – 2028)
Overview
SEISMIC is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary STEM higher education collaboration between instructors, researchers, students, student support staff, and many more who focus on assessment reform. We came together in early 2019 for SEISMIC Phase One because we needed to improve student experiences in our introductory STEM courses. In July 2025, we began SEISMIC Phase Two with a narrower focus on revising our approaches to assessing students in introductory STEM courses. We also received additional funding from the Sloan Foundation for SEISMIC Phase Two. The overall goal of SEISMIC Phase Two is to promote greater adoption of equity-oriented assessment practices in large introductory STEM courses across a range of institutions and departments. To achieve this goal, we will support STEM disciplinary teams in piloting revised assessments in STEM courses across the collaboration and evaluating their efficacy. In addition, we will restart our public Speaker Series program, host a monthly SEISMIC Seminar for active participants, officially launch our projects in Spring 2026 with a Kick Off Event, continue to seek funding for STEM reform projects, and aim to host a public STEM Structural Change Conference in Summer 2028.
Leadership
Director Tim McKay leads SEISMIC Phase Two. SEISMIC Central is led by Project Manager Nita Tarchinski and includes Program Assistant Diop Russell and 5 SEISMIC Ambassadors selected from the pool of ambassadors across participating institutions. SEISMIC Central works to make sure the collaboration is well organized, our events are effective, we engage in continuous improvement, we make progress toward our collective goals, and the overall collaboration runs smoothly.
Structures & Activities
Disciplinary Teams
In SEISMIC Phase Two, major projects will be organized around disciplinary teams. We commit to organize at least four disciplinary teams that will each engage in a multi-year Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to revise assessments used in their introductory STEM courses.
Parallel Data Analysis
Participating institutions will examine course-level assessment data in 2025-2026 (baseline data) and in future project years to determine the impact of assessment reforms undertaken by the disciplinary teams.
Kick Off Event (May 2026)
Our in-person 2-day Kick Off Event in Ann Arbor, MI in May 2026 will launch disciplinary teams working on course assessment reform. Face‐to‐face meetings play an important role in establishing the social ties needed for any successful collaboration. This is especially true when the community is diverse; coming from many institutions, disciplines, and roles in higher education, with various interests, goals, and identities. SEISMIC has all these traits, which is why the Kick Off Event is critical to this project.
Speaker Series
From 2025-2028, SEISMIC will host at least 20 in-person speakers across the collaboration. Each partner institution will be responsible for hosting 1-2 speakers on their campus. These speaker visits will accelerate research, build community, enhance the spread of ideas, and reinforce our focus on equitable STEM assessments.
SEISMIC Seminar
Starting in Spring 2026, each month we will host a virtual collaboration meeting for disciplinary teams to share progress, for SEISMIC members to discuss relevant resources, and for SEISMIC members to meet in parallel roles (e.g., students with students).
Publications & Proposals
Throughout the project, SEISMIC will aim to publish peer-reviewed articles detailing the findings of the disciplinary teams and submit collaborative grant proposals to fund future work.
SEISMIC General Courses List
Listed below are a series of general, introductory courses that SEISMIC intends to study further.
| Subject | Topic | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Biology | Introductory Biology I | first year |
| Biology | Introductory Biology II | first year |
| Chemistry | General Chemistry I | first year |
| Chemistry | General Chemistry II | first year |
| Chemistry | Organic Chemistry I | second year |
| Chemistry | Organic Chemistry II | second year |
| Computer Science | Intro to Computer Science | first year |
| Economics | Economics I | first year |
| Economics | Economics II | first year |
| Engineering | Intro to Engineering | first year |
| Math | Pre-Calculus | first year |
| Math | Calculus I | first/second year |
| Math | Calculus II | first/second year |
| Physics | Physics I (Mechanics) | first year |
| Physics | Physics II (Electricity and Magnetism) | first year |
| Psychology | Psychology I | first year |
| Statistics | Statistics I | first year |
Reference
[1] Langley, G. J., Moen, R. D., Nolan, K. M., Nolan, T. W., Norman, C. L., & Provost, L. P. (2009). The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.