RAPID: Using Real Life COVID-19 data to teach quantititative reasoning skills to undergraduate Hispanic STEM students

拉美裔服务机构方案支持在提供或获取数据、设施或专门设备方面存在严重紧急情况的快速项目，包括对自然灾害或人为灾害以及类似的意外事件(如新冠肺炎大流行)的快速反应研究。拉雷多社区学院是一个为期两年的机构，该项目旨在调查在新冠肺炎大流行的情况下，使用完全虚拟的本科生研究模式来增强定量推理和素养，同时促进学生坚持不懈的有效性。此外，该项目旨在促进教师在指导社区学院和在线学习环境中的本科生研究方面的发展。这项工作将包括收集和监测拉雷多高度贫困农村社区新冠肺炎感染率的数据，从而增加科学家可用数据的多样性。该项目可能揭示随着学习向完全虚拟的形式过渡而出现的不平等现象，并可能提供有针对性的战略，以吸引和鼓励在STEM历来代表性不足的群体完成学位。学生和教职员工构成了一个双层模型，前者在他们所在的社区开展新冠肺炎研究，后者考察这些学生在这种背景下是如何学习的；这种结构可以为其他农村社区学院提供借鉴。通过从拉雷多的新冠肺炎传播中收集数据，这个项目可以成为一个机会，利用数据来研究、学习和为未来做准备，这是弹性的重要组成部分。唯一的数据元素将仅在此时存在。本科生将利用现有的新冠肺炎数据资源，围绕数据分析设计和实施研究体验。学生将通过收集、解释、分析数据，根据数字证据得出结论，并将这些信息传达给其他人，从而增加他们的定量推理知识库、技能集和信心水平。参与该项目的教师还将获得以定量推理为重点的职业发展机会。将评估在提供研究内容材料和虚拟指导研究以及学生过渡到四年制机构和定量推理能力方面对教师发展的影响。该提案还包括通过会议和专业协会会议向几乎整个大学、城市和州以及其他HIS传达成果的计划。这一快速奖项由教育和人力资源局人力资源发展司的拉美裔服务机构计划颁发。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科生STEM教育和能力建设。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。

The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program supports RAPID projects when there is a severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to, data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The project at Laredo Community College, a two-year institution, seeks to investigate the effectiveness of using a fully-virtual undergraduate research format to enhance quantitative reasoning and literacy while promoting student persistence during a pandemic of COVID-19. Additionally, this project seeks to promote faculty development in guiding undergraduate research at a community college and in an online learning environment. This work will include collecting and monitoring data on the rate of infection of the COVID-19 in high-poverty rural communities in Laredo thus increasing the diversity of the data available to scientists. The project may shed light on inequities that have occurred as learning has transitioned to fully-virtual formats and may provide targeted strategies for engaging and encouraging groups historically underrepresented in STEM to degree completion. Students and faculty comprise a two-tier model where the former conduct research on COVID-19 in their communities and the latter examine how these students learn in this setting; this structure may serve as a model for other rural community colleges. By gathering data from the COVID-19 spread in Laredo, this project can be an opportunity to use data to study, to learn, and to prepare for the future, an important component of resiliency. The unique data elements will only exist at this time. An undergraduate research experience will be designed and implemented around data analysis utilizing existing COVID-19 data resources. Students will increase their quantitative reasoning knowledge base, skills set, and confidence level by gathering, interpreting, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on numerical evidence, and communicating this information to others. Faculty involved in the project will also gain a quantitative reasoning-focused professional development opportunity. The impact on faculty development for delivering research content material and guiding research virtually as well as students’ transitions into four-year institutions and quantitative reasoning ability will be evaluated. The proposal also includes plans for communicating results virtually throughout the college, city, and state, as well as to other HSIs through conferences and professional society meetings.This RAPID award is made by the Hispanic-serving Institutions Program in the Division of Human Resource Development, Directorate of Education and Human Resources. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs.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.