Expanding Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research to Inspire Undergraduate Success

该项目旨在通过开发STEM课程，促进包容所有学习者并培养跨学科解决问题的技能，从而服务于国家利益。当今社会面临的问题很复杂，需要具有不同视角和现实世界解决问题能力的STEM毕业生来解决这些问题。这些技能可以通过本科生研究或实习来培养，但获得这些经验的机会可能有限，而且不均衡。该项目将使加州州立大学、萨克拉门托大学和洛斯里奥斯地区四所社区学院的学生参与以课程为基础的真实学习体验。这些学习体验将使学生参与专业人员在现场使用的相同过程，以解决结果未知的问题。学习体验进一步集中在人类对北加州水道的影响这一共同的科学主题上，从而使学生参与到一个与社会相关的当地问题中。作为该项目的一部分，在五个机构教授67门课程的50多名教师将参与一个由教师领导的跨学科实践社区，为STEM教育改革提供共同的愿景。教师学习社区的目标是1)提高教师在课程设计和创新教学方面的专业知识，2)促进跨学科和机构的合作，3)支持实施基于课程的真实学习体验，以扩大对研究体验的参与。该项目将考察不同学科和机构类型的教师如何合作建立、实施和评估新课程。它将进一步提供有关体验式课程对来自十个学科的学生的影响的数据，并寻求产生关于北加州水生态系统的新知识。该项目得到了NSF改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源的支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型轨道，该计划支持高等教育机构和学科社区转变和改进STEM教育的努力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing STEM curricula that promote inclusion of all learners and foster interdisciplinary problem-solving skills. Issues faced by society today are complex, and STEM graduates with diverse perspectives and real-world problem-solving skills are needed to solve them. These skills may be developed through undergraduate research or internships, but access to these experiences can be limited and unevenly available. This project will engage students at California State University, Sacramento and the four Los Rios District community colleges in course-based Authentic Learning Experiences. These learning experiences will engage students in the same processes that professionals use in the field to solve problems with unknown outcomes. The learning experiences further focus on the common scientific theme of human impacts on Northern California’s waterways, thus engaging students in a local, socially relevant problem. As part of this project, more than 50 faculty teaching 67 courses at five institutions will engage in an interdisciplinary, faculty-led community of practice with a shared vision for STEM education reform. The faculty learning community aims to 1) elevate faculty expertise in curriculum design and innovative pedagogies, 2) promote collaboration across disciplines and institutions and 3) support the implementation of course-based authentic learning experiences to broaden participation in research experiences. The project will examine how faculty across different disciplines and institution types collaborate to build, implement, and assess new curricula. It will further provide data on the impacts of experiential curricula on students from ten disciplines, as well as seek to generate new knowledge about Northern California’s water ecosystems. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.