The Research Advancement among Careers and Education for Success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (RACE for Success in STEM)

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个第一轨道项目旨在消除理科一年级学生在数学、英语和西班牙语方面解决问题和批判性思维技能方面的弱点。波多黎各Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico-Ponce校区（PCUPR）的科学、技术、工程和数学领域的职业和教育成功研究进展（RACE for Success in STEM）是一个为期两年的跨学科研究项目，采用整体方法。该项目还旨在整合社会问题，这是他们在本科阶段情绪稳定、自信和自我激励的重要因素。参加我们项目的学生将受到当今社会经济困难、学术逆境以及飓风玛丽亚、地震和COVID-19等自然事件的影响。因此，这个项目计划用一套完整的组件来弥补学术差异和人际智能。本项目设计将提高西班牙裔本科一年级学生的教育能力、研究技能和归属感，以提高STEM领域的保留率和毕业率。STEM成功竞赛的具体目标是：(1)提高学生在STEM教育中脱颖而出所需的基本学术技能；(2)制定新的策略，通过从学生的家庭和社会背景中获得的信息，支持学生过渡到高级STEM职业；(3)通过提供研究、批判性思维和阅读理解活动来促进记忆和包容，赋予学生未来所需的技能；(4)通过同行引领和研究引领的活动，激发STEM教育的归属感。该提案是一个试点项目，将使用定性（访谈和焦点小组）和定量（GPA、课程成绩和调查）数据的混合方法设计。与数学、英语和西班牙语专业大一新生组成的其他学生组（对照）相比，拟议的项目包括一个试验组。试点小组还将参与学生发展计划，包括自我管理技能发展计划和首次体验暑期研究实习。预期结果将显示一年级学生和STEM工作人员在保留率、学习成绩和坚持度方面的改善。拟议中的项目将影响数学、西班牙语和英语等课程的课程设置，为学院留下一笔遗产，为同行领先和研究领先的活动提供一个精心设计的新项目，对学生在STEM领域取得成功至关重要。研究人员将通过简短报告和地方和国家会议（如HSI计划）向社区传播项目成果。这项研究的活动和结果也将通过我们的主页（http://pucpr.edu）在线提供给感兴趣的公众，这是一个专门用于试点项目的部分：RACE for Success in STEM。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。考虑到hsi的多样性和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及(3)提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将借鉴这些方法，为如何实现这些目标提供新的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 aims to diminish weaknesses in solving problems and critical thinking skills in mathematics, English, and Spanish among first-year science students. The Research Advancement among Careers and Education for Success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (RACE for Success in STEM) at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico-Ponce Campus (PCUPR) is a two-year interdisciplinary research project with a holistic approach. The project also aims to integrate social issues, which are vital elements of their emotional stability, self-confidence, and self-motivation at the undergraduate level. Students who will participate in our project are affected by today's socioeconomic hardships, academic adversity, and natural events like Hurricane Maria, Earthquakes, and COVID-19. Therefore, this project plans to compensate with a complete set of components that address the academic disparities and interpersonal intelligence. This project design will enhance the educational capacity, research skills, and sense of belonging of first-year undergraduate Hispanic students to improve retention and graduation rates in STEM fields.The RACE for Success in STEM specific aims are: (1) To improve students' foundational academic skills needed to excel in STEM education; (2) To develop new strategies that support student transitions to advanced STEM careers through the information obtained from the student's family and social context; (3) To promote retention and inclusion by providing research, critical thinking and reading comprehension activities, empowering the students with skills necessary for the future; and (4) To elicit a sense of belonging in STEM education through peer-leading and research-leading activities. This proposal is a pilot project that will use a mixed-method design with qualitative (interviews and focal groups) and quantitative (GPA, course grades, and surveys) data. The proposed project consists of a pilot group compared to the rest of the student group (control) of freshman students registered in mathematics, English, and Spanish. The pilot group will also participate in the Student Developmental Plan consisting of the Self-Management Skills Development Program and the First Experience Summer Research Internship. The expected outcomes will show improvements in retention, academic performance, and persistence among first-year students and within the workforce in STEM. The proposed project will impact the curriculum in courses like Math, Spanish, and English, leaving an Institutional legacy with a new program in peer-leading and research-leading activities well designed and essential for students' success in STEM. The researchers will disseminate the project outcomes to the community through brief reports and local and national meetings (e.g., HSI Program). This study's activities and results will also be available online to the interested public through our home page: http://pucpr.edu, a section dedicated to the Pilot Project: RACE for Success in STEM. 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.