Project SEA Change: Using Social Connectivity to Improve Quantitative Literacy and Transform Undergraduate Science Teaching

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Quantitative literacy skills are important indicators of civic engagement and social equity, and they contribute to successful progress and college degree attainment. Because of the importance of quantitative literacy skills, the fact that 20-30% of the US adult population (college graduates included) exhibit weakness in these skills is of profound significance for society. Project SEA Change is a cooperative venture of Bowling Green State University and Owens State Community College to increase students' success in STEM undergraduate education by improving students' quantitative competence and logical reasoning skills. Since mathematics is the primary barrier to college completion, this project will have a transformative impact on undergraduate education by increasing degree attainment at both two-year and four-year levels, and increasing access and transfer from community college to a four-year school for students from low-income backgrounds and first-generation college students. In so doing, the project will broaden the diversity of voices within the STEM community, and create a more STEM-literate society.Project SEA Change will achieve its goals of improving the quantitative literacy skills of undergraduate students in STEM courses through the following strategies: (1) widening implementation among faculty members and teaching assistants of high-fidelity research-based instructional strategies; (2) improving social support for and connectivity among STEM transfer students; (3) offering an "emporium-style" learning model that integrates self-paced computer instruction with on-demand, one-on-one tutoring; and (4) strengthening collaborative leadership among administrators and faculty in support of stronger STEM education. The project will employ social network analyses, in combination with professional development activities, student learning communities, and high-profile interdisciplinary initiatives, to test the power of subgroups to promote rapid, large shifts in the use of evidence-based teaching practices, reduce the "transfer shock" experienced by community college students, and deepen the commitment of students to mastery of mathematics. The research efforts embedded in the project will contribute to knowledge of effective approaches to organizational change that foster deeper student learning.