Improve Precalculus Success by Pairing a Precalculus Course with a Computer Science Course Centered on Select Precalculus Topics

在改善本科STEM教育的支持下：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划），这个第一轨道试点项目旨在改善准备不足的学生从代数到微积分的过渡，使用计算机编程来帮助学习微积分前的概念和技能。许多打算主修STEM的社区大学学生对微积分准备不足，因此微积分预科已经成为许多STEM专业的入门课程。然而，由于学生在微积分预科课程中的成功率较低，这些课程在STEM管道中造成了重大收缩。该项目将进行研究如何配对传统的precalculus课程与重新设计的计算机科学课程为中心的选择precalculus主题的数值调查影响学生的表现在（a）precalculus课程;（B）随后的微积分课程;和（c）在完成STEM学位/转让。它将提供有价值的洞察力的方式，计算机编程可以提高成功的precalculus和（随后）微积分。对于社区学院来说，它有可能帮助缓解代数和微积分之间的瓶颈，这种瓶颈限制了转学率，降低了学生对STEM的兴趣。项目结果还将增加关于如何使用计算来教授预计算的知识体系，以帮助服务不足和表现不佳的学生获得STEM学科。如果被证明是成功的，这种方法可能会在全国范围内广泛使用，因为几乎每个大学校园都有微积分预科课程，并且是STEM专业的先决条件。该项目的主要目标是提高学生在微积分预科课程中的成功率，增加能够进入并成功完成微积分的学生数量，从而减少选择退出STEM专业的学生数量。本计画将完成下列目标：（1）发展一套以数值研究为中心的计算机科学课程，以配合微积分课程的发展;（2）提供新的课程组合（3）确定这种方法如何影响学生的（a）微积分预科的成功率;（B）其后修读微积分课程的人数;（c）微积分课程的成功率。所提出的方法的成功将通过使用控制组和治疗组的准实验程序来确定，其中治疗组包括完成补充计算机科学课程沿着正式的微积分课程的学生;控制组将只完成后者。项目团队将在地方、地区和国家层面广泛传播项目和研究成果，与其他寻求提高数学成绩的教育机构和社区分享重要发现。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于不同的性质和背景下的HSIs，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（一）参与学生学习，（二）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM的参与，以及（三）提高我们对如何在HSIs建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划所支持的项目也将从这些方法中汲取经验，以产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF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 Track1 pilot project aims to improve underprepared students’ transition from algebra to calculus using computer programming to aid the learning of precalculus concepts and skills. Many community college students intending to major in STEM are underprepared for calculus so precalculus has become a gateway course for many STEM majors. However, because of low student success in precalculus courses, these courses create a major constriction in the STEM pipeline. The project will conduct research on how pairing the traditional precalculus course with a redesigned computer science course centered on numerical investigation of select precalculus topics impacts student performance in (a) the precalculus course; (b) subsequent calculus courses; and (c) in completion of STEM degree/transfer. It will provide valuable insight into the ways in which computer programming can elevate success in precalculus and (subsequently) calculus. For community colleges, it has the potential to help ease the bottleneck between algebra and calculus that constricts transfer rates and diminishes student interest in STEM. Project results will also add to the body of knowledge on how using computing to teach precalculus can help underserved and underperforming students gain access to STEM disciplines. If proven successful, this approach will likely find widespread use throughout the country, given that precalculus appears on almost every college campus and is a prerequisite for STEM majors.The primary goal of the project is to boost student success in precalculus, increasing the number of students able to enter and successfully complete calculus thus reducing the number of students who opt out of STEM majors. The project will accomplish the following objectives: (1) Develop a supplementary computer science course centered on numerical investigation of select precalculus topics to accompany the precalculus course; (2) Provide the new course combination (computer science +precalculus) to at least 60 students during the grant period; (3) Determine how this approach impacts students’ (a) success rate in precalculus; (b) subsequent enrollment in calculus courses; (c) success rate in calculus courses. The success of the proposed approach will be determined through quasi-experimental procedures using control and treatment groups, where the treatment group comprises students completing the supplementary computer science course along with the formal precalculus course; the control group will have only completed the latter. The project team will widely disseminate project and research results at local, regional, and national levels to share important findings with other educational institutions and communities that seek to increase math attainment. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.