Building Capacity: Transforming STEM Undergraduate Education through Academic Literacy, Mentoring, and Professional Development

能力建设：通过学术素养、指导和专业发展转变 STEM 本科教育

• 批准号: 1832388
• 负责人: Heather Shipley
• 金额: $ 150万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1832388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Building; Capacity; Transforming; STEM; Undergraduate

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 the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will advance the aims of the HSI Program by developing new curricula and methods of instruction that increase student persistence and success. The project will implement a faculty development framework that helps faculty: 1) connect their course content to students' background knowledge; 2) demonstrate connections between lower level and upper level courses; and 3) help students develop professional identities that can lead them into STEM careers. The project will focus on developing students' ability to understand the complex language of science, including words and visual representations, such as graphs, charts, and diagrams. Expected outcomes are that faculty will develop expertise in innovative, evidence-based teaching approaches that enhance student learning, and that students will develop marketable skills needed for success in STEM careers. The overall goal of this project is to develop new methods of instruction and associated curricular change with an explicit focus on the intersection of academic literacy and content competencies. This goal will be achieved through the application of evidence-based teaching approaches, coaching of STEM faculty to improve student learning, and by providing student mentoring and professional development experiences. The project includes the following specific tasks: 1) Developing and improving undergraduate STEM students' integrated understanding of academic literacy and core competencies; 2) Creating interdisciplinary professional development lesson study groups of instructors to engage in sustainable instructional and curricular change; 3) Aligning STEM curricula between lower and upper division courses; 4) Developing a near-peer mentoring program for sophomore and junior level STEM students; 5) Providing research opportunities and professional development activities for STEM students; and 6) Evaluating the relevance and effectiveness of the institutional curricular redesign. These proposed activities focus on the critical transition between lower and upper level undergraduate courses, a key transition for student retention and graduation in STEM. In addition, innovative cross-disciplinary partnerships will be established between collaborating STEM and Education faculty. These partnerships will create lesson study groups of instructors that draw explicit attention to the role of academic literacy in the development of strong university-level STEM teaching and learning. The proposed plan builds on the dedication of UTSA to increasing diversity in the STEM workforce. This plan is an integrated approach to increase the number of undergraduate underrepresented minorities who graduate from the UTSA Colleges of Engineering and Sciences. It is expected that the program will benefit STEM undergraduates at UTSA by increasing their retention rates, critical thinking skills, professional knowledge, self-efficacy, graduation rates, and professional and workforce preparedness.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.

改善本科生STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划(HSI计划)旨在加强本科生STEM教育，并在HSIS建设能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校(UTSA)的这个项目将通过开发新的课程和教学方法来促进HSI计划的目标，以提高学生的毅力和成功。该项目将实施一个教师发展框架，帮助教师：1)将他们的课程内容与学生的背景知识联系起来；2)展示较低级别和较高级别课程之间的联系；以及3)帮助学生培养能够引领他们进入STEM职业生涯的职业认同感。该项目将侧重于培养学生理解复杂的科学语言的能力，包括文字和视觉表现，如图形、图表和图表。预期的结果是，教师将发展创新的、基于证据的教学方法方面的专业知识，以促进学生的学习，学生将发展在STEM职业生涯中取得成功所需的有市场的技能。该项目的总体目标是开发新的教学方法和相关的课程改革，明确侧重于学术素养和内容能力的交集。这一目标将通过应用循证教学方法、对STEM教员进行指导以改善学生学习以及提供学生指导和专业发展经验来实现。该项目包括以下具体任务：1)发展和提高本科STEM学生对学术素养和核心能力的综合理解；2)创建跨学科专业发展课程学习小组，以从事可持续的教学和课程改革；3)调整STEM课程在下级和上级课程之间的关系；4)为二年级和三年级的STEM学生制定近乎同行的指导计划；5)为STEM学生提供研究机会和专业发展活动；以及6)评估机构课程重新设计的相关性和有效性。这些拟议的活动侧重于低水平和高水平本科课程之间的关键过渡，这是留住学生和在STEM毕业的关键过渡。此外，将在合作的STEM和教育系之间建立创新的跨学科伙伴关系。这些伙伴关系将创建由教师组成的课程研究小组，提请明确注意学术素养在发展强大的大学一级STEM教与学中的作用。拟议的计划建立在UTSA致力于增加STEM劳动力的多样性的基础上。这项计划是一种综合办法，旨在增加从UTSA工程和科学学院毕业的本科生中代表人数不足的少数族裔人数。预计该计划将使UTSA的STEM本科生受益，提高他们的保留率、批判性思维技能、专业知识、自我效能感、毕业率以及专业和劳动力准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。