Collaborative Research: Strengthening the Foundation of STEM Education for Community College Students

该项目正在开发中佛罗里达大学（UCF）和塞米诺尔社区学院（SCC）之间的大学/社区学院合作伙伴关系，旨在加强科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）社区大学生的数学基础。为实现这一目标，确定了若干重要目标：创建教学策略结合了两年制机构和研究型大学之间的创新伙伴关系，通过调整合作研究型大学成功的国家科学基金会资助的STEP计划（EXCEL）的基础设施，以更好地适应两年制机构的环境。这是通过开发一个团队教学，stem跨学科的课程序列来实现的。这个顺序的课程是《大学代数应用》、《三角学应用》和《微积分预科应用》。2. 通过与EXCEL教师和UCF教学与学习中心（FCTL）合作，在社区学院发展教师专业知识。3. 创建一个由SCC和UCF的学习者和学者组成的学习社区，通过强调数学的应用来提高大学本科生的数学能力。为这些学生创建的校园中心进一步加强了这一点。在中心，学生在校园里有一个“大本营”，在那里他们可以参与小组学习，并接受数学和数学课程应用方面的辅导。智力价值：协作努力的目的是在社区大学实施和测试教育实践，模仿EXCEL程序。这种教育模式应用于学习者和学者的不同环境（SCC和UCF）的效果有助于建立本科STEM教育的知识库，并推进了对不同学生群体（社区学院和大学学生）教授数学应用的最佳实践的识别。更广泛的影响：该项目中建立的大学/社区学院合作伙伴关系旨在成为未来在其他大学与邻近社区学院合作实施的试点项目，以提高STEM本科生的数学基础。由于全国社区大学的学生中有相当一部分来自STEM领域代表性不足的群体，因此全国社区大学的类似项目将扩大代表性不足群体对STEM的参与。

This project is developing a university/community college partnership between the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Seminole Community College (SCC) that is designed to strengthen the mathematical foundations of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community college students. To achieve this goal, a number of important objectives are identified: 1. Creating Teaching Strategies incorporates an innovative partnership between a two-year institution and a research university through adaptation of the infrastructure of a successful NSF funded STEP program (EXCEL) at the partnering research university to better fit a two-year institution's setting. This is being achieved by developing a team-taught, STEM-interdisciplinary course sequence. The courses in this sequence are Applications of College Algebra, Applications of Trigonometry, and Applications of Pre-Calculus. 2. Developing Faculty Expertise at the community college by working jointly with EXCEL faculty and the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) at UCF. 3. Creating a Learning Community of Learners and Scholars from SCC and UCF with the common goal of enhancing the mathematics abilities of college underclassmen through emphasizing applications of mathematics. This is further reinforced by the creation of a center on campus for these students. At the center students have a "home base" on campus where they may engage in group study and receive tutoring in their mathematics and applications of mathematics coursework. Intellectual Merit: The collaborative effort is designed to implement and test educational practices at the community college, modeled after the EXCEL program. The effect of this educational model applied to diverse environments of learners and scholars (SCC and UCF) contributes to the knowledge base of undergraduate STEM education and advances identification of best practices in teaching mathematical applications to diverse student populations (community college and university students). Broader Impacts: The university/community college partnership established in this project is intended to be a pilot program for future implementation at other universities in partnership with neighboring community colleges to improve mathematical foundations of STEM undergraduates. Because a significant number of the nation's community college students are from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, similar programs at community colleges all over the nation would broaden STEM participation among underrepresented groups.