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With college advisory boards and potential employers consistently voicing their desire for engineers and scientists who can communicate well, work effectively in teams, and independently problem-solve, the Colleges of Engineering & Computer Science (ECS) and Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) at Sacramento State University, a large, public, primarily undergraduate institution, have deployed two programs to explicitly address these skills for undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. The goals of the NSF-funded Achieving STEM Persistence through Peer-Assisted Learning and Leadership Development (ASPIRE) project are to increase retention and decrease time to graduation for STEM students, as well as increase retention of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) in the STEM workforce by implementing evidence-based practices to promote student success during two critical transitions: 1) from lower-division to upper-division coursework in engineering; and 2) from upper-division coursework to an entry-level STEM career. ASPIRE aims to achieve these goals by: 1) adapting and implementing the NSM Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) program in gateway engineering courses; and 2) developing the Hornet Leadership Program which includes scaffolded opportunities for students to explore their leadership capacity and develop leadership skills. The main research questions for this study include: (1) Will the ECS PAL model and Hornet Leadership Program result in increased persistence and workforce readiness in STEM majors at a large, diverse university? (2) What attitude changes will this project have on students and faculty and the relationships between them? The first question is addressed through pre- and post-implementation student surveys and student course/GPA data. The second question is addressed through faculty surveys, faculty focus groups/interviews, and pre- and post-data from a faculty professional development workshop. In general, preliminary results from this study indicate the new ECS PAL program successfully attracts URM students and thus has the potential to support their persistence and STEM workforce readiness. Additionally, undergraduate students across both Colleges who participated in the inaugural Hornet Leadership Program gained non-technical skills and experiences directly linked to competitiveness and preparation for workforce entry and graduate programs. Finally, faculty surveys and the faculty professional development workshop indicate that faculty value student leadership development, but identify barriers to accomplishing this work.
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Improving STEM Education for Lower-division College Students at HSI by Utilizing Relevant Sociocultural and Academic Experiences: First-year Results from ASSURE-US Project
Despite national efforts in increasing representation of minority students in STEM disciplines, disparities prevail. Hispanics account for 17.4% of the U.S. population, and nearly 20% of the youth population (21 years and below) in the U.S. is Hispanic, yet they account for just 7% of the STEM workforce. To tackle these challenges, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has granted a 5-year project – ASSURE-US, that seeks to improve undergraduate education in Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) at California State University, Fullerton. The project seeks to advance student success during the first two years of college for ECS students. Towards that goal, the project incorporates a very diverse set of approaches, such as socio-cultural and academic interventions. Multiple strategies including developing early intervention strategies in gateway STEM courses, creating a nurturing faculty-student interaction and collaborative learning environment, providing relevant, contextual-based learning experiences, integrating project-based learning with engineering design in lower-division courses, exposing lower-division students to research to sustain student interests, and helping students develop career-readiness skills. The project also seeks to develop an understanding of the personal, social, cognitive, and contextual factors contributing to student persistence in STEM learning that can be used by STEM faculty to improve their pedagogical and student-interaction approaches. This paper summarizes the major approaches the ASSURE-US project plans to implement to reduce the achievement gap and motivate ECS students to remain in the program. Preliminary findings from the first-year implementation of the project including pre- and post- data were collected and analyzed from about one hundred freshmen and sophomore ECS students regarding their academic experience in lower-division classes and their feedback for various social support events held by the ASSURE-US project during the academic year 2018-19. The preliminary results obtained during the first year of ASSURE-US project suggests that among the different ASSURE-US activities implemented in the first year, both the informal faculty-student interactions and summer research experiences helped students commit more to their major during their lower-division years. The pre-post surveys also show improvements in terms of awareness among ASSURE-US students for obtaining academic support services, understanding career options and pathways, and obtaining personal counseling services.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1832536
- PAR ID:
- 10192467
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
- Volume:
- 1
- Issue:
- 1
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-15
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34795
