Turtle Mountain STEM Infusion Project

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The goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to support Native-serving institutions of higher education in building their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instructional and research capacities. The project directed by Turtle Mountain Community College titled “Turtle Mountain STEM Infusion Project” addresses this goal through the implementation of a faculty professional development project that bolsters faculty members’ STEM research knowledge and skills. Professional development experiences span multiple years and involve faculty in cross-disciplinary research work. The strengthening of STEM research capacity at TMCC translates to improved STEM instruction and greater opportunities for student-involved research experiences, strategies that studies indicate improve students’ STEM outcomes.Through the delivery of intensive summer workshops spanning a comprehensive set of research-related topics coupled with summer research opportunities, this three-year project supports cross-disciplinary faculty members in building their capacity to collaboratively design and conduct research and to mentor students in research work. Workshop topics include research design, data collection and analysis, and research ethics. Project funding also allows faculty to purchase materials and equipment to implement their research with the eventual goal of engaging students as collaborators in the work. The project also supports faculty members and student collaborators in presenting their research studies at local and national conferences. Through documentation and wide dissemination of the project’s professional development model by project staff, other colleges and universities are afforded the opportunity to adopt and adapt the model for use in building their institution’s STEM capacity.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.