Building Capacity: Addressing Critical Transitions of First-Year STEM Students

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The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge about how to achieve these aims. This project at Northeastern Illinois University, an HSI, aims to increase retention of students by engaging them in a supportive, research-based learning community. This learning community will be called Agua en Comunidades Experimentales (ACE), which means Water in Research Communities. The ACE learning community will include social supports, scientific training, and research experiences related to water science. The project will evaluate the impact of the ACE learning community on student success in introductory STEM courses as well as student retention in STEM degree programs. By enhancing the preparation of students, the project seeks to increase the number of STEM-interested students who declare a STEM major and earn a baccalaureate degree in STEM.The ACE learning community will create a longitudinal, four-year "home base" for students who enter college at the developmental level. This approach differs from the typical learning community model, which places student cohorts in the same set of courses offered during the first semester or first year of college. Other important aspects of the ACE learning community include its focus on research that has a societal and community benefit, and its embedding of academic supports within the curriculum. Northeastern Illinois University will work with other institutions to develop internship positions for ACE students and to create faculty development workshops to prepare faculty to mentor ACE students. The project seeks to develop a model that can be disseminated and adopted by multiple departments at Northeastern Illinois University, as well as by other institutions. The outcomes of the ACE learning community model will add to the evidence base about strategies and interventions to support the success of students, including low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students. Quantitative and qualitative assessments will be conducted to identify best practices in building students' identities as scientists, and how their self-efficacy or confidence in STEM studies correlate with success rates in STEM courses. This information is important for producing a national STEM workforce that is highly capable and diverse.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.