STEM Course Transformation: Cultivating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Mindset and Undergraduate Research

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to increase the number of STEM degrees and underrepresented minority (URM) student representation, while at the same time transforming the STEM undergraduate experience. At California State University, Chico, low pass rates in lower division courses impede student progression in STEM, and URMs experience higher repetition rates than their non-URM peers despite having met similar admission criteria. With the largest attrition of STEM students occurring in the first two years, the project targets large enrollment courses with low pass rates to implement high impact practices designed to increase student success. High impact practices include increasing student participation in research experiences and entrepreneurial activities, recognizing that such experiences may yield disproportionate benefits to URMs while supporting STEM identity formation, retention, and increasing professional preparation and social integration for all students. CSU, Chico will implement Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) including the integration of entrepreneurial skills development as the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience and Entrepreneurship (CURE-E) model. Faculty training and development is a central feature of the project. A summer institute offers an interactive workshop to introduce faculty to inquiry-based learning, assessment strategies, rubrics, and educational technologies. Faculty members will participate in ongoing professional learning community sessions, and returning faculty trained in previous summer institutes will share their experiences and best practices. By increasing retention and graduation rates, this project has the potential to help fill critical gaps and broaden participation in the US STEM workforce by increasing the number of trained STEM professionals.Specific aims of this project are the implementation of the CURE-E model into 15 STEM barrier courses; STEM entrepreneurship toolkit; faculty and student research and innovation symposium; faculty training and development in the CURE-E summer institute; and educational research and project evaluation activities. To understand how the CURE-E model transforms classroom experiences for STEM undergraduate students, the research will focus on the faculty leading the re-design and implementation of the STEM barrier courses using the LifeGrid methodology. This research tool is used to collect and analyze qualitative data, specifically the instructors’ external and internal experiences as they implement the CURE-E model. Expected outcomes include enhanced quality of undergraduate STEM education showing a decreased achievement gap between URM students and non-URM students in STEM; increased undergraduate retention and graduation rates; and contributions to the research literature on professional development of instructors adopting the CURE-E model. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.