Testing the Use of Co-requisite Precalculus Instruction to Improve Undergraduate Students' Success in Calculus 1

该项目旨在通过增加需要额外支持才能成功学习微积分入门课程的本科生获得STEM领域的机会，为国家利益服务。共同必要的指导可以帮助学业上准备不足的本科生在学业上取得成功，并保持在他们预期的STEM学位的轨道上。共同必修课程的潜在影响尤其与线性课程序列相关，如微积分预科到微积分课程序列。这个项目的目的是测试一种综合方法，通过共同必要的微积分前的指导来提高微积分1的成功率。该项目将迅速确定可能受益于微积分预备课程的学生，并为他们提供这种支持。在此过程中，该项目将测试一种数据驱动的快速响应策略，以帮助学生在微积分I和随后的微积分课程中取得成功。如果这种方法取得成功，它可以为高等教育机构提供一种实用而有效的策略，以确保学生在大学水平的数学课程中有更公平的成功机会。预计这种方法将特别有利于受新冠肺炎大流行严重影响的本科生。这个在阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学进行的为期三年的“参与学生学习I级”项目旨在实施一项实验性的学术干预，该干预将对大约500名微积分I学生进行微积分预备课程的内容知识获取、微积分I的成功以及对微积分II的坚持。该项目的一个重点将是实施和评估一门为期四个学期的2学分的微积分预修课程。通过实验设计，将获得干预的学生队列与具有类似学术准备措施的历史队列进行比较。比较将提供一个多方面的有效性评估的共同必要的指导，以支持微积分序列，并提供一个严格的测试，是否共同必要的微积分前的指导，以支持微积分1有助于提高学生在微积分1的成功。从实验中开发的材料，包括鉴定协议、课程材料、统计方法和分析，将通过公共项目网页公开分享。本项目由NSF IUSE: EHR项目资助，该项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing access to STEM fields for undergraduate students who need additional support to succeed in introductory Calculus courses. Co-requisite instruction can help academically underprepared undergraduate students succeed academically and stay on track to their intended STEM degree. The potential impact of co-requisite courses is particularly relevant for linear course sequences like the Precalculus through Calculus course sequence. This project aims to test an integrated approach to increase success in Calculus 1 through co-requisite Precalculus instruction. The project will rapidly identify students who will likely benefit from precalculus corequisite instruction and provide them with this support. In doing so, the project will test a data-driven, quick-response strategy for helping students succeed in Calculus I and subsequent Calculus courses. If this approach is successful, it could provide Institutions of higher education with a practical and effective strategy to ensure that students have more equitable access to success in college-level mathematics courses. It is expected that this approach will be of particular benefit to undergraduates whose education has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.This three-year Engaged Student Learning Level I project at University of Alaska Fairbanks aims to implement an experimental academic intervention that will measure Precalculus content knowledge acquisition, success in Calculus I, and persistence to Calculus II for roughly 500 Calculus I students. A key focus of the project will be the implementation and evaluation of an experimental 2-credit co-requisite Precalculus course over four semesters. Through an experimental design, student cohorts with access to the intervention will be compared to historical cohorts with similar measures of academic preparation. The comparison will provide a multifaceted evaluation of the effectiveness of co-requisite instruction in support of the Calculus sequence and provide a rigorous test of whether co-requisite Precalculus instruction in support of Calculus 1 contributes to increasing student success in Calculus 1. Materials developed from the experiment, including identification protocols, curriculum materials, and statistical methods and analyses, will be publicly shared through a public project webpage. This project is funded by the NSF IUSE: EHR Program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. 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.