HSI Pilot Project: Investigating Impact of an Active Learning-informed and Creative-Video-based Psychosocial Enrichment Intervention on Retention of Hispanic Engineering Students

在美国国家科学基金会“改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）计划”的支持下，本项目旨在研究主动学习技术，以提高德克萨斯a&m国际大学（TAMIU）西班牙裔学生的工程保留率。2019冠状病毒病大流行使教室转向虚拟学习模式，这对我们许多本科生的保留率产生了负面影响。对于STEM领域的少数族裔学生来说，学生的成功一直是一个挑战，对于TAMIU面临风险的学生群体来说更是如此。面对这些挑战，该项目将为工程学生提供有意义的视频学习和小组活动，以促进学习。社交和视频互动的设计将有利于妇女和少数民族，因为近90%的TAMIU学生是西班牙裔，一半以上是女性。同时，该项目将研究基于证据的STEM丰富计划的效果和成功，该计划可以在其他少数族裔服务机构实施。该项目的具体目标是提高西班牙裔、弱势群体和低收入家庭学生攻读本科工程学位的持久性、完成率和毕业率。该项目的研究策略将结合随机对照试验设计、路径分析方法和纵向方法，并将涉及两组大一工程专业学生。在为期两个学期的丰富课程中，每个班级将被平均分成两组，一组有创意视频项目，另一组没有创意视频项目。这一干预措施将适用于现有的两门保留率较低的门户工程课程。项目团队包括来自工程学、心理学和社会学的专家。这个项目的成功将使我们深入了解社会心理结果如何促进我们的干预对工程专业学生的保留和及时毕业的影响。调查结果将通过地方、州、国家和国际会议和论坛传播；论文将在工程教育、认知心理学和科学社会学期刊上发表。本项目将促进对主动学习策略如何进一步加强学习、提高本科工程教育的参与度、保留率、完成度和持久性的理解和见解。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科STEM教育和能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些战略目标的新知识。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 National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 1 project aims to research active learning techniques to improve the engineering retention rate of Hispanic students at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU). The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted classrooms to virtual learning modes, which negatively impacted the retention of many of our undergraduate students. Student success has always been a challenge for minority students in STEM fields and is even more so for TAMIU's at-risk student population. With these challenges, the project will provide engineering students with meaningful video-based learning and group-based activities to facilitate learning. Social and video interactions will be designed to benefit women and minorities, as almost 90% of TAMIU students are Hispanic, and more than half are female. Simultaneously, the project will study the effect and success of an evidence-based STEM enrichment program that can be implemented at other minority-serving institutions. The Project's specific aim is to improve the persistence, completion, and graduation of Hispanic, under-represented, and low-income students pursuing undergraduate engineering degrees. The Project's research strategy will combine a randomized controlled trial design, a path-analytic approach, and a longitudinal approach, and will engage two cohorts of freshman engineering students. Each cohort will be equally divided into two groups, one with creative video projects and the other without creative video projects, in a 2-semester enrichment program. This intervention will be applied to two existing gateway engineering courses with low retention rates. The Project team includes experts from engineering, psychology, and sociology. The success of this project will generate insights into how psychosocial outcomes facilitate the impact of our intervention on engineering student retention and timely graduation. Findings will be disseminated through local, state, national, and international conferences and forums; manuscripts will be submitted for publication in engineering education, cognitive psychology, and sociology of science journals. This project will advance understanding and generate insights on how active learning strategies can further enhance learning and improve engagement, retention, completion, and persistence in undergraduate engineering education. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these strategic 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.