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1. Incorporating Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience into Introductory Chemistry Course; Gender Inequities in STEM Education

   Alexandria Xena Singapan, Irene Lin (July 2022, Journal of laboratory chemical education)

   Dr. Alice Suroviec (Ed.)

   Approaches to student-centered active learning have evolved. The progression in course-design has led to the development of new learning paradigms such as collaborative, problem based, and project-based learning. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a learning pedagogy that infuses research experiences within the curriculum. This method of instruction increases opportunities for students to participate in more authentic education experiences and is especially beneficial in the science education pathway. CUREs encourage students to be autonomous and emphasize teamwork. Our research proposes methodologies that can maximize student performance, particularly benefiting underrepresented and underprepared female students. Pre- and post- assessments of a CURE classroom were administered to gauge student engagement and success in a General Chemistry course. Specifically, our research focuses on female engagement in CURE projects and overall success and retention rates to test if the teaching methods will support increased gender equity in STEM. 

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2. Implementing a course-based authentic learning experience with upper- and lower-division physics classes

   https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0137141  

   Jensen, Mikkel Herholdt; Morris, Eliza J.; Ray, M. W. (September 2023, American Journal of Physics)

   We describe a dual-class authentic learning experience (ALE) in which undergraduate upper-division physics students develop low-cost instruments, which are then used by students in a lower-division course to monitor water quality in rivers. The ALE bridges the experiences of lower- and upper-division physics majors by involving students across different stages of their college careers in a collaborative project. Lower-division physics students characterize, calibrate, and troubleshoot the instrument prototypes developed by their upper-division peers, and their work informs instrument modifications in future upper-division physics classes. This paper describes the first iteration of this project along with student perceptions. We find that lower-division students report an increase in their awareness of possible upper-division projects, an increased sense that their coursework has real-world applications, and a heightened understanding of how physicists can play a role in research on environmental issues. 

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3. A Model for Course-Based Undergraduate Research in First-Year Engineering

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46456  

   Davishahl, Eric (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   The Association of American Colleges and Universities identifies undergraduate research experiences as a high impact practice for increasing student success and retention in STEM majors. Most undergraduate research opportunities for community college engineering students involve partnerships with universities and typically take the form of paid summer experiences. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) offer an alternative model with potential for significant expansion of research opportunities for students. This approach weaves research into the courses students are already required to complete for their degrees. CUREs are an equitable approach for introducing students to research because they do not demand extracurricular financial and/or time commitments beyond what students must already commit to for their courses. This paper describes an adaptable model for implementing a CURE in an introductory engineering design and computing course that features applications of low-cost microcontrollers. Students work toward course learning outcomes focused on computer programming, engineering design processes, and effective teamwork in the context of multi-term research and development efforts to design, build, and test devices for other CUREs in science lab courses as well as for other applications at the college or with community partners. Students choose from a menu of projects each term, with a typical course offering involving four to six different projects running simultaneously. Each team identifies a focused design and development scope of work within the larger context of the project they are interested in. They give weekly progress reports and gather input from their customers. The work culminates in a prototype and final report to document their work for student teams who will carry it forward in future terms. We assessed the impact of the experience on students’ beliefs about science and engineering, STEM confidence, and career aspirations using a nationally normed survey for CUREs in STEM and report results from five terms of offering this course. We find statistically significant pre-post gains on two-thirds of the survey items relating to students’ understanding of the research process and confidence in their STEM abilities. The pre-post gains are generally comparable to those reported by others who used the same survey to assess the impact of a summer research experience for community college students. These findings indicate that the benefits of student participation in this CURE model are comparable to the benefits students see by participation in summer research programs. 

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4. Teaching Engineering Students to Self-Transform: Parallelisms between Product Innovation and Student Career Path Planning

   Vargas_Hernandez, Noe; Fuentes, Arturo; Ortega, Javier; Lozano, Karen; Marquez, Eleazar (February 2023, 2023 UTRGV STEMED Conference)

   Focus/Problem Statement Freshman engineering students can have a hard time transitioning to college. The freshman year is critical to the students’ academic success; in this year they learn basic skills and establish essential networks with other students, faculty, and resources. How can we help these freshman engineering students in this transition? Theoretical or Conceptual Framework We propose that freshman students can learn from the engineering design innovation process and apply it by analogy to the design of their academic pathways. There are multiple similarities between product innovation (i.e., technology) and the continuous academic challenges faced by the student. Engineers as designers and innovators have a vast and rich repository of techniques, tools, and approaches to develop new technologies, and a parallelism can be drawn between the design and innovation of a technology (e.g., redesign of a kitchen appliance), and the “design” of the students’ academic career pathways. Methodology/Design of the Study or Organization The pilot for the Spring 2023 semester will have Intro to Mechanical Engineering (MECE 1101) students work in teams in a semester-long product innovation project to redesign a simple kitchen appliance. Students will learn theory and methodology of the design process (e.g., creative exploration of solutions, decision making, multi objective evaluation, etc.). These same students will concurrently take UNIV 1301 (Learning Frameworks) where they will have a semester-long project to define their career pathways. Both projects, product innovation and career pathways, will follow the Challenge Based Instruction (CBI) approach. Periodically, a connection will be established between the projects to show the students how to use the lessons from product innovation by analogy and reflection in their career pathways project. The authors believe that the MECE 1101 project initiates a process for students to become innovators and entrepreneurs, while the UNIV 1301 project prepares students as self-innovators for future academic, personal, and professional challenges. Findings/Conclusions In this session, the authors will share their experiences and plan of implementation as well as details from recent NSF IUSE HSI funding for this purpose. The authors expect audience engagement to receive suggestions and ideas to improve freshman student success. 

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5. Integrating Socially Responsible Computing through Direct Community Engagement in CS2 to Promote Latinx Student Retention

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3641554.3701895  

   Sun, Yu; Dong, Qichao; Tang, Fang (February 2025, ACM)

   This experience report is part of an ongoing NSF-funded grant project involving an alliance of six California State University campuses, aimed at promoting Latinx student retention through community engagement in early computer science courses. The project focuses on integrating socially responsible computing (SRC) into the curriculum to transform computing culture and invite marginalized students to participate. At our campus, we integrated SRC concepts into the CS2 course on Data Structures and Algorithms. Initially, SRC concepts were introduced into assignments and projects, which showed promising results but highlighted challenges: the assignments and projects were instructor-created, leading to a gap between students and the concepts. Students passively received topics without proactive participation, resulting in a lack of perceived real-world impact. To address this, we involved the local Latinx community directly. Students visited community partners to identify real-world problems, which they then addressed through term projects, ultimately presenting their solutions to the community. Adopting a startup mindset, students interviewed partners, identified problems, developed prototypes, and delivered solutions. This hands-on approach, first implemented in Spring 2024, significantly enhanced student engagement and provided practical, impactful learning experiences. This report details the course design, implementation process, formative data collected, and reflections on the outcomes. The findings offer valuable insights and recommendations for educators aiming to foster community engagement and socially responsible computing in computer science education, with a specific focus on promoting Latinx student retention. 

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