This university is joining colleges across the country in a five-year effort to better equip students with the basic knowledge needed to succeed in what officials called some of academia’s most challenging fields.

On Wednesday, the Association of American Universities launched an initiative to evaluate and improve the education of students in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, otherwise known as STEM. The plan aims to identify and share the best methods for teaching students basic course material, including general math, chemistry and physics — knowledge officials said is crucial to tackling challenging upper-level courses and eventually graduating with the skills necessary for successful careers in those fields.

University officials said this program could not have come at a better time, as similar efforts have already been underway at different STEM colleges across the campus.

Robert Infantino, associate dean of the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college, said these recent university initiatives were targeted to ensure STEM students had a thorough understanding of challenging course material instead of giving up and switching majors.

“It’s 100 and 200-level courses when students tend to leave science and technology for other majors,” Infantino said. “Our faculty particularly in these levels are always in the process of making sure what they’re doing is relative and engaging.”

To target students struggling with the mathematics and physics requirements of their majors, CMNS recently launched online interactive math tutorials called MathBench, alongside new special math and physics courses designed to introduce concepts in a biological context.

“In the past instructors couldn’t teach at the level they wanted to because students didn’t have the math skills,” Infantino said. “These are good solutions to get up to speed or refresh your mind.”

Although students interested in science majors could have rude awakenings once immersed in the course load, Infantino said he hoped the new teaching initiatives would make the work more manageable.

“A lot of people come to the biosciences because they watch House on TV,” Infantino said. “They don’t take into account the physics and chemistry, and we need to engage them in a rigorous way and help them master it as much as possible.”

But CMNS isn’t the only college on campus reaching out to students in the STEM fields.

Associate Dean Bill Fourney of the engineering college said the faculty also had several initiatives underway to ensure more engineering students took on the rigorous course load successfully. These included the launch of Virtus — a new living-learning program designed for first-year male engineering students — and a peer mentoring program to ensure incoming students would not be deterred by the challenging classes.

Additionally, Fourney said the engineering college is in the process of developing an intensive summer program expected to start next year to assist 40 prospective engineering students who needed extra help with math.

“It’s got many facets to it and everything is intended to make students more successful,” Fourney said.

Faculty at the agriculture and natural resources college have also worked on several projects, including an intensive hands-on course teaching recombinant DNA laboratory techniques and incorporating 3-D video technology into the animal and avian sciences department’s anatomy course.

And on a campus-wide scale, the new blended learning initiative — a concept aiming to teach faculty how to engage students by integrating more online tools into courses — would also make student learning experiences more interactive and less lecture-based, said Chris Higgins, OIT interim director for learning technologies and environments.

“The goal is to provide a more active learning experience for students,” Higgins said.

Infantino said the new initiatives spread across STEM disciplines would ultimately be beneficial for faculty and students.

“I think anything that we can do that helps students to engage in the material and master it successfully is rewarding for any faculty member,” he said. “If you see more light bulbs go off in the classroom, you have a feeling whatever [teaching] method you used was a good one.”

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