Central Valley Region Interdisciplinary Science Education Research Symposium

从提高本科STEM教育的支持：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，学生和领导人在整个加州的中央谷提供一个重要的跨学科和跨校园合作，将满足本科学生群体的需求的机会，为国家利益服务。在该地区有超过25所高等教育机构，从社区学院到研究型大学，规模从3，000名以下到25，000多名本科生不等。所有这些机构服务的学生群体是高度多样化的，历史上服务不足，并代表美国的当前和未来的人口统计。本次研讨会的发展将是五个中央谷机构（弗雷斯诺城市学院，默塞德学院，加州州立大学（CSU）斯坦尼斯劳斯，CSU弗雷斯诺和加州大学（UC）默塞德）之间的合作努力。其中三所机构（CSU Stanislaus，CSU Fresno和UC默塞德）已获得NSF改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（IUSE-HSI）轨道3赠款。不幸的是，由于COVID-19大流行，这些赠款的研究人员很少有机会分享他们在这些项目上完成的重要工作。 因此，研讨会的目的是：（1）传播中央谷社区的教育研究成果，调查教育研究的趋势，并确定教育研究和实践的未来方向;（2）鼓励和促进教师，员工，以及来自中央谷两年制和四年制院校的学生，他们进行了严格的研究，解决了我们国家最迫切的教育需求;以及（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途径的空间。鉴于我们希望这次专题讨论会成为一项年度活动，因此必须评估专题讨论会在多大程度上实现了上述成果并满足了与会者的需要和期望。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的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于HSIs的多样性和背景，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（i）参与学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及（iii）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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.