Building Capacity: Infusing Research as Pedagogy

改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划（HSI计划）旨在加强本科STEM教育并建立HSI的能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。联合县学院的这个项目将通过将研究整合到本科STEM课程中来推进HSI计划的目标。该项目计划将基于课程的本科生研究经验（CUREs）嵌入STEM门户课程，在学年期间支持独立研究经验，并开发暑期研究学院。该项目旨在为学生提供研究机会，以提高学生的参与度、批判性思维技能、保留率和毕业率，并转入四年制大学的STEM专业。联合县学院拥有一个经济、种族和民族多元化的学生团体。因此，该项目有助于建立多元化的STEM劳动力队伍。该项目将研究研究机会如何提高学生的参与度、批判性思维技能、学生保留率和毕业率，以及如何转入STEM学士学位课程。该项目包括三个协调的干预措施：1)将基于课程的研究整合到8门STEM门户课程中；2)支持独立的学生驱动的研究经验；3)创建暑期研究学院。这些干预措施将把学生主导的研究纳入课程，增强传统社区大学的学习体验。该项目将通过使用批判性思维评估测试工具比较基线人群和干预后人群来评估研究经验的影响。在三种干预措施中的每一种中，该项目将在干预措施开始和结束时使用该工具来确定批判性思维技能。学生还将被跟踪以检查其专业的保留情况。最后，将收集有关学生表现的数据，包括成绩、STEM课程的入学率、毕业率和转学率。为了检验CURES的影响，将对参加CURES的学生和STEM专业的基线数据进行比较。学生在学年的研究项目和研究学院将与未参加的学生进行比较，以及与学院的基线数据进行比较。预计该项目可作为两年制和四年制院校寻求开发研究教学法课程模式以培养批判性思维技能的典范。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 Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (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 aims. This project at Union County College will advance the aims of the HSI Program by integrating research into undergraduate STEM courses. The project plans to embed course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into STEM gateway courses, support independent research experiences during the academic year, and develop a summer research academy. The project aims to provide students with research opportunities that increase student engagement, critical thinking skills, retention and graduation rates, and transfer into a STEM major at a four-year institution. Union County College has an economically, racially, and ethnically diverse student body. Consequently, this project can contribute to building a diverse STEM workforce. The project will examine how research opportunities may increase student engagement, critical thinking skills, student retention and graduation, and transfer into a baccalaureate STEM program. The project includes three coordinated interventions: 1) integrating course-based research into eight STEM gateway courses; 2) supporting independent student-driven research experiences; and 3) creating a summer research academy. These interventions will incorporate student-driven research into the curriculum, enhancing the traditional community college learning experience. The project will assess the impact of research experiences by comparing baseline and post-intervention populations using the Critical-Thinking Assessment Test instrument. In each of the three interventions, the project will use this instrument to determine critical thinking skills at the beginning and completion of the interventions. Students will also be tracked to examine retention in the major. Finally, data will be collected on student performance including grades, enrollment in STEM courses, and graduation and transfer rates. To examine the impact of CURES, a comparison will be made between students who participate in the CURES and baseline data for STEM majors. Students in the academic year research projects and research academy will be compared to students who did not participate, as well as to the college's baseline data. It is anticipated that the project may serve as a model for both two- and four-year institutions seeking to develop a research as pedagogy curriculum model to build critical thinking skills.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.