Broadening Participation Research Project: Genre Theory as a Catalyst for Broadening Underserved Students’ Participation in STEM Discourse Communities

通过扩大STEM教育项目参与研究（BPR）的历史黑人高校本科项目（HBCU-UP）支持与STEM本科教育中代表性不足群体的参与和成功相关的新理论驱动模型和创新的开发、实施和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教师的研究能力，并改善STEM教育和劳动力中代表性不足群体的招聘、保留和成功。奥尔巴尼州立大学的这个项目旨在研究体裁理论，即在话语社区背景下具有特定交际目的的口语和书面文本，以加深STEM教师的语言知识和信心，为语言和文化多样化的学生设计有效的教学。预计参加多年计划的学生将表现出对科学素养的掌握，并在生物科学领域培养归属感，从而有可能增加奥尔巴尼州立大学生物学毕业生的数量。该项目的目的是通过教学干预、研究指导和实践经验的结合，开发一个应用类型理论的过程，使学生能够破译STEM中的学术语言代码，并将其应用到个人研究项目中。重点是设计和试点一个系统的程序，在特定的生物学课程中使用教学和学习周期（TLC），为话语社区提供学术素养，以便服务不足的学生有更多的机会进入STEM领域的职业生涯。该项目旨在让奥尔巴尼州立大学的生物学专业学生沉浸在一系列的课程和体验活动中，这些课程和体验活动旨在让学生接触到其核心内容，即“研究途径”。在这一途径中，学生将在各种环境中得到严格的指导和指导，包括教室，实验室，现场和其他专业STEM环境，从而确保科学素养的发展以及实践科学家所需的知识和技能。话语社区将允许教师应用TLC，因为学生研究人员从建模研究活动中学习，实践STEM话语，并将他们获得的知识和技能应用于个性化的长期研究项目。这项设计和开发研究涉及到奥尔巴尼州立大学生物专业的高影响力实践的复杂网络的创建和测试。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。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) through Broadening Participation Research (BPR) in STEM Education projects supports the development, implementation, and study of new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, as well as improve the recruitment, retention, and success of underrepresented groups in STEM education and the workforce. This project at Albany State University seeks to examine genre theory, the spoken and written text with specific communicative purposes in the context of a discourse community, to deepen STEM teachers’ knowledge of language and confidence to design effective instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse students. It is anticipated that students who participate in a multi-year program will demonstrate increased mastery of scientific literacy and develop a sense of belonging within the biological sciences, thereby having the potential to increase the number of biology graduates at Albany State University. The aim of this project is to develop a process which applies the genre theory through a combination of instructional interventions, research mentorship and hands-on experiences, allowing students to decipher the academic language code in STEM and apply it to individual research projects. The focus is to design and pilot a systematic procedure using the teaching and learning cycle (TLC) across specific biology courses to provide access to academic literacy in discourse communities so that underserved students will have greater access to careers in STEM fields. This project intends to immerse Albany State University biology majors in a scaffolded series of curricular and experiential activities which are expressly designed to expose majors to what will be at its core, a “Research Pathway.” While enrolled in this pathway, the students will be rigorously mentored and guided in a variety of settings including the classroom, laboratory, field, and other professional STEM environments thereby ensuring the development of scientific literacy as well as the knowledge and skills required by practicing scientists. The discourse community will allow the faculty to apply the TLC as the student researchers learn from modeling research activities, practicing STEM discourse, and applying the knowledge and skills they acquire to individualized long term research projects. This design and development study involves the creation and testing of an intricate web of high impact practices for Albany State University biology majors.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.