Central Valley Region Interdisciplinary Science Education Research Symposium

在改进本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划），本次会议旨在通过汇集研究人员，教育工作者，学生和领导人来服务于国家利益，并在整个加州的中央山谷提供了一个重要的跨学科和跨校园合作的机会，以满足本科生群体的需求。在这个地区有超过25所高等教育机构，从社区学院到研究型大学，规模从3000到25000多名本科生不等。所有这些机构所服务的学生群体高度多样化，历史上服务不足，代表了美国当前和未来的人口结构。这次研讨会的发展将是中央山谷五所大学（弗雷斯诺城市学院、默塞德学院、加州州立大学斯坦尼斯劳斯分校、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和加州大学默塞德分校）之间的合作。其中三所大学（科罗拉多州立大学斯坦尼斯劳斯分校、科罗拉多州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和加州大学默塞德分校）获得了美国国家科学基金会改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（IUSE-HSI）第三轨道资助。不幸的是，由于COVID-19大流行，这些资助的研究人员几乎没有机会分享他们在这些项目中完成的重要工作。因此，研讨会的目标是：(1)传播中央谷社区的教育研究成果，探讨教育研究的趋势，并确定未来教育研究和实践的方向；(2)鼓励和促进来自中央山谷两年制和四年制院校的教职员工和学生之间的网络和新的跨学科研究合作，从而产生严谨的研究，解决我们国家一些最紧迫的教育需求；(3)为本科生和研究生提供一个发现和更好地了解教育研究领域和潜在职业道路的空间。鉴于我们希望这次研讨会成为一年一度的活动，评估研讨会在多大程度上满足了上述成果，并满足了与会者的需求和期望，这一点很重要。为了评估研讨会的有效性，我们计划收集参与者的人口统计数据，对参与者的期望进行前后调查，并跟踪长期影响指标和传播记录。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的多样化性质和背景，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(i)关于参与式学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM参与，以及（iii）提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解，这些都是由该计划支持的。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 conference seeks to serve the national interest by bringing together researchers, educators, students, and leaders throughout California’s Central Valley to offer an opportunity for significant interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaborations that will meet the needs of the undergraduate student population. Within this region there are more than 25 institutions of higher education, from community colleges to research universities, ranging in size from under 3,000 to more than 25,000 undergraduate students. All these institutions serve a student population that is highly diverse, historically underserved, and representative of America’s current and future demographics. The development of this symposium will be a cooperative effort between five of these Central Valley institutions (Fresno City College, Merced College, California State University (CSU) Stanislaus, CSU Fresno, and University of California (UC) Merced). Three of these institutions (CSU Stanislaus, CSU Fresno, and UC Merced) have received NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (IUSE-HSI) Track 3 grants. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from these grants have had few opportunities to share the important work that they have accomplished on these projects. Therefore, the goals of the symposium are to: (1) disseminate education research findings from the Central Valley community, investigate trends in education research, and identify future directions for education research and practice; (2) encourage and facilitate networking and new interdisciplinary research collaborations among faculty, staff, and students from Central Valley two-year and four-year institutions that results in rigorous research that addresses some of our nation’s most pressing education needs; and (3) provide a space for undergraduate and graduate students to discover and better understand the field of educational research and potential career pathways. Given our desire for this symposium to become an annual event, it will be important to assess how well the symposium meets both the outcomes listed above and meets the needs and expectations of the participants. To assess the effectiveness of the symposium, we plan to collect participant demographics, pre- and post-surveys of participants’ expectations, and track long- term impact metrics and dissemination records. 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 are supported by this program.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.