Building Capacity: An Undergraduate STEM-Enrichment Program in Texas

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）计划的支持下，本项目旨在研究教育支持和教学活动，以提高来自西班牙裔、女性、低收入和第一代等服务不足学生群体的STEM毕业生的质量和数量。该项目将引入重要的STEM知识和技能，以及其他学术支持（辅导和指导），除了视频项目作业，以提高学生对STEM学科的归属感、信心和认同感。因此，该计划将提高少数族裔STEM学生的学习成绩，并朝着及时毕业的方向迈进。通过专业形成经验，该项目将为学生毕业并在美国关键部门工作做好准备，如农业和食品、能源、医疗保健和医药、网络和信息技术以及国家安全。这项研究将为其他大学和学院传播新的知识，以帮助院校实施新的教学策略。总体而言，该项目的预期成果将产生新的战略，以改善和加强全国少数民族学生的本科STEM教育。该项目的具体目标是对选定的德克萨斯A&amp；M国际大学STEM学生实施几种强化策略，以提高GPA和获得学位的时间。这些策略将包括一个大学前夏令营，为参与者提供STEM入门课程的领先优势，这些课程对他们的专业进步至关重要，两个学期的STEM研究方法系列研讨会，以及本科生的STEM研究经历。辅导和补充指导课程也将包括在内。一半的参与者将被随机分配到与stem相关的创意视频作业中。该方法包括实验设计、治疗和对照组。该项目将测试富集策略是否会导致更高的gpa和及时毕业的改进路径。该项目还将以学术学习机会的形式创造专业发展机会；stem -实习和/或stem -孵化器；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 Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 1 project aims to research the educational support and instructional activities that increase the quality and number of STEM graduates from underserved groups of students such as Hispanic, female, low-income, and first generation. The project will introduce important STEM knowledge and skills plus other academic support (tutoring and mentoring), in addition to video project assignments, to improve students’ sense of belonging, confidence, and identity with STEM disciplines. Consequently, this programming will lead to enhanced minority STEM students’ academic performance and progress toward timely graduation. Through professional formation experiences, this project will prepare students to graduate and work in critical U.S. sectors such as agriculture and food, energy, health care and medicine, cyber and information technologies, and national security. The research will disseminate new knowledge to other universities and colleges to help institutions implement new instructional strategies. Overall, the project’s expected outcomes will produce novel strategies to improve and enhance undergraduate STEM education for minority students across the nation.The specific aims of the project are to implement several enrichment strategies on selected Texas A&M International University STEM students with the aim of improving GPA and time to degree. These strategies will include a pre-college summer camp to provide participants with a head start on the STEM-introductory classes critical to progressing in their majors, a two-semester STEM research methods seminar series, and an undergraduate STEM research experience. Tutoring and supplemental instruction sessions will also be included. Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to work on STEM-related creative video assignments. The methodology embeds an experimental design, treatment, and control groups. The project will test whether the enrichment strategies lead to have higher GPAs and an improved path toward timely graduation. The project will also create professional developmental opportunities in the form of academic learning opportunities; STEM-internships and/or STEM-incubatorships; and mentorship of program participants 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 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.