Crossroads Project- Intersecting Workshops, Learning Communities and Research in Biology to Promote Student Success in STEM

提高社区大学生在STEM的成就率和留存率，特别是代表不足的少数民族学生，对于增加全国STEM毕业生的数量至关重要。CUNY Kingsborough社区学院主要服务于低收入和高度多样化的学生群体，该学院建议开发、实施和评估一套全面的经过验证的方法，针对学生在开始生物课程时缺乏准备、缺乏支持网络、经济负担以及无法将STEM教育与日常生活联系起来的主要障碍。提高学生在这些早期生物课程中的成就率将提高保留率，并增加STEM学生毕业并转到四年制院校的人数。建议为被选中参加该计划的学生开展三种类型的活动。首先，在普通生物学I之前，将提供STEM成功的策略工作坊，以加强基本的阅读、数学和学习技能。其次，将建立一个生物学习者社区，让学生协作复习生物学原理，建立友谊，并在课堂之外与教职员工互动。第三，校园作为一种研究实验室方法，利用现有的校园水族馆、农场、海滩和海洋技术设施，将提供相关的研究经验和一对一的教师指导。还将为教师提供支持，以开发和实施新的教学方法，接受课堂活动评估方面的培训，并参与在校园内和与更大社区交流工作的机会。目标是提高学生的表现和留存能力；促进对自然、科学和公民身份的更好理解；并增强教师参与学生的能力。这些活动中的每一项都将通过学生访谈、概念清单、生物学习者社区会议中探索对生物概念的误解的作业以及关于他们作为研究实验室经验的校园的反思论文来仔细评估。对教师活动的评估将包括访谈、调查、焦点小组、出版物、演示文稿和对参与项目的教师的跟踪。进度将通过项目达到基准的程度来衡量。混合方法评估将提供有价值的信息、模型和材料，供其他社区大学在努力改善低收入和代表性不足的少数民族学生的STEM学习、留住和转学方面使用。

Improving the success and retention of community college students in STEM, especially underrepresented minority students, is crucial for increasing the number of STEM graduates nationwide. CUNY Kingsborough Community College, which serves a largely low income and highly diverse population of students, proposes to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive set of proven approaches that target the major barriers of unpreparedness, lack of support networks, financial burdens, and inability to connect STEM education with daily life for students in their beginning biology courses. Improving student success in these early biology courses will lead to improvements in retention and increase the number of STEM students graduating and transferring to 4-year institutions.Three types of activities are proposed for students selected to participate in this program. First, a Strategies for Success in STEM workshop will be offered prior to General Biology I to strengthen basic reading, math, and study skills. Second, a community of biology learners will be established for students to collaboratively review biological principles, build camaraderie, and interact with faculty outside of the classroom setting. Third, a campus as a research lab approach that leverages the existing campus aquarium, farm, beach, and marine technology facilities will provide relevant research experiences and one-on-one faculty mentoring. Support will also be provided for faculty to develop and implement new pedagogies, receive training in assessment of classroom activities, and participate in opportunities to communicate their work both on campus and with the larger community. The goals are to improve student performance and retention; foster greater understandings of nature, science, and citizenship; and enhance the capacities of the faculty to engage students. Each of these activities will be carefully evaluated through student interviews, concept inventories, assignments in community of biology learner meetings that explore misconceptions about biological concepts, and reflection papers about their campus as a research lab experiences. Evaluation of faculty activities will include interviews, surveys, focus groups, publications, presentations, and tracking of faculty involved in the project. Progress will be measured by the degree to which the project met its benchmarks. The mixed methods evaluation will provide valuable information, models, and materials that other community colleges can use as they struggle to improve STEM learning, retention, and transfer for low-income and underrepresented minority students.