Building the Foundation for Institutionalizing Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences in Community Colleges to Improve STEM Equity

为社区学院基于课程的本科生研究经验制度化奠定基础，以提高 STEM 公平性

• 批准号: 2021546
• 负责人: Katrien Kraft
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Whatcom Community College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2021546&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Building; Foundation; Institutionalizing; Course; Based

This project aims to serve the national interest by laying the foundation for increased access to research experiences at community colleges. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) enable students to do original research as part of their regular coursework. CUREs have the potential to advance equity goals by providing research experiences for all students, not just a select few. In addition, because two-year colleges have high enrollments of students from underrepresented groups, making CURES widely available has the potential to increase diversity in the STEM workforce. A group of faculty members at Whatcom Community College have been implementing CUREs in different STEM disciplines, including biology, geology, and engineering. An increasing number of other faculty are interested in implementing CUREs in their classes. The proposed project would leverage this interest to examine how the institution can widen the use of CUREs and, thus, generate an institutional transformation in STEM instructional practices. The two-year project will also contribute to national interests by completing a study on institutional change at a two-year college, which can inform the efforts of other institutions to improve STEM teaching and learning.This project is designed to: (1) identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) for institutional capacity for CURE expansion and institutionalization; (2) support current CURE adopters through community building and feedback; (3) revisit the SWOT analysis to determine the institutional capacity to reform curricular efforts; and (4) disseminate key findings. The SWOT analysis will be part of a multi-day strategic planning retreat with CURE-implementing faculty and administrators. Participating CURE faculty members will develop a learning community to guide and support the process of developing CUREs. Considering the COVID-19 Pandemic, the project will have a focus on designing CURE experiences for online learning. The project will include a series of faculty interviews to provide rich descriptions of the mechanisms and reasons for implementing CUREs. Using these data, along with collaboration with an expert on institutional change, this project has the potential to produce a model of institutional improvement that is grounded in the experiences of faculty members at two-year colleges for which there is limited research. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.

该项目旨在通过为增加社区学院的研究经验奠定基础，为国家利益服务。基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURES）使学生能够进行原创性研究，作为其常规课程的一部分。 CURE有潜力通过为所有学生提供研究经验来推进公平目标，而不仅仅是少数学生。此外，由于两年制大学有来自代表性不足群体的高入学率，因此广泛提供CURES有可能增加STEM劳动力的多样性。 Whatcom社区学院的一群教师一直在不同的STEM学科中实施CURE，包括生物学，地质学和工程学。 越来越多的其他教师有兴趣在课堂上实施CURE。 拟议的项目将利用这种兴趣来研究该机构如何扩大CURE的使用，从而在STEM教学实践中产生机构转型。该两年期项目还将通过在一所两年制学院完成一项关于体制变革的研究来促进国家利益，这一研究可以为其他机构改善STEM教学和学习的努力提供信息，该项目旨在：（1）确定团结与种族平等委员会扩大和体制化的体制能力的优势、劣势、机会和威胁（SWOT）;（2）通过社区建设和反馈支持当前的CURE采用者;（3）重新审视SWOT分析，以确定改革课程工作的机构能力;以及（4）传播主要研究结果。SWOT分析将是一个多天的战略规划务虚会的一部分，与治愈实施教师和管理人员。参与CURE的教师将开发一个学习社区，以指导和支持开发CURE的过程。考虑到COVID-19大流行，该项目将专注于为在线学习设计CURE体验。该项目将包括一系列的教师访谈，以提供实施CURE的机制和原因的丰富描述。利用这些数据，沿着与一位体制改革专家的合作，本项目有可能产生一个体制改进的模型，该模型以两年制大学教员的经验为基础，对此研究有限。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 通过机构和社区转型的轨道，该计划支持的努力，以改变和改善高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育.这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估支持.