Collaborative Research: HSI Pilot Project: Research for Improved Student Experiences in STEM (RISE in STEM)

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这一Track 1项目--STEM改善学生体验研究(RISE)旨在通过在精选的STEM入门课程中实施改进的教学实践和学生支持，在波多黎各泛美大学(IAUPR)的庞塞和巴亚蒙校区促进学生在STEM中的成功。该项目利用合作的本科生研究经验和学术建议，寻求提高学生在“门户”实验室课程中的成功率。这两个校区将在这个项目中合作，为99%的学生提供服务，这些学生中有99%是西班牙裔，大多数是低收入的第一代大学生。通过提高这些入门课程的成功率，STEM的崛起项目将使这些学生能够坚持并成功地获得STEM学位，从而扩大STEM的参与度。此外，这一试点计划将产生证据，以支持第二轨道资助，并为该计划未来在IAUPR的九个校区的全系统制度化提供支持。将在合作环境下设计和试行治愈实验室课程，实施学术咨询，并举办教师发展讲习班，以此作为在波多黎各泛美大学庞塞和巴亚蒙校区改善学生看法和表现的机制。这一创新项目是基于不同校区团队之间的合作的重要性，这种合作为未来的STEM专业人员提供了强大的学习体验，包括为21世纪的研究生学习和工作培养技能。预计学生会获得心理和行为上的收获，如增强自信、自我效能感、项目归属感、科学认同感和归属感。这些心理“收获”中的许多都是证据支持的指标，用于量化学生认知的变化，这些变化与STEM中保留率和毕业率的提高有关。这个项目将产生关于多校区、多教员、多同行领导在治疗中的协作模式以及学术建议如何有助于提高学生在HSIS的认知和表现的新知识。该计划的外部评估将在专门为试点计划设计的前后测试中衡量学生对关键的、基于证据的结构(归属感、科学认同感、自我效能感、对STEM的兴趣和坚持STEM的意愿)的看法，并将生成初步的纵向数据。最后，学生的表现将通过准实验设计方法进行测量和分析，使用匹配的t检验比较治疗和非治疗的学生成绩，以产生计划影响的证据。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。鉴于高等教育机构的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法，以激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究(I)关于学生参与式学习，(Ii)关于如何有效地多样化和增加对STEM的参与，以及(Iii)提高我们对如何建设高等教育机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将从这些方法中获得如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project, Research for Improved Student Experiences (RISE) in STEM aims to promote student success in STEM on the Ponce and Bayamon campuses of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico (IAUPR) by implementing improved teaching practices and student supports in select introductory STEM courses. Using collaborative undergraduate research experiences and academic advising, this program seeks improve student success rates in “gateway” lab courses. The two campuses that will collaborate in this project to serve a population of students that is 99% Hispanic, majority low-income and first-generation college students. By improving success rates in these gateway courses, the RISE in STEM project will allow these students to persist and succeed in STEM degree attainment, thereby broadening participation in STEM. Additionally, this pilot program will generate evidence to support track 2 funding and expansion of the program for its future system-wide institutionalization at IAUPR’s nine campuses. CURE-laboratory courses, in a collaborative setting, will be designed and piloted, academic advisement will be implemented, and faculty development workshops will be conducted as mechanisms for improving student perceptions and performance on the Ponce and Bayamon Campuses of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. This innovate project is based on the importance of collaborations between teams at different campuses which provide robust learning experiences for future STEM professionals, including developing skills for graduate studies and jobs in the 21st century. It is expected that students develop psychological and behavioral gains such as increased confidence, self-efficacy, project ownership, scientific identity and a sense of belonging. Many of these psychological “gains” are evidence-supported metrics for quantifying changes in student perceptions that are linked to improved retention and graduation rates in STEM. This project will generate new knowledge about how a multi-campus, multi-faculty, multi-peer leader collaborative model in CUREs, combined with academic advisement, can contribute to increased student perceptions and performance at HSIs. External evaluation of the program will measure student perceptions on key, evidence-based constructs (sense of belonging, science identity, self-efficacy, interest in STEM and intention to persist in STEM) in a pre/post-test designed specifically for the pilot program and will generate preliminary longitudinal data. Finally, student performance will be measured and analyzed via quasi-experimental design methods, comparing treatment and non-treatment student grades using matched t-tests to generate evidence of program impacts. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.