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We are facing a national challenge of low retention rates for STEM-interested students. At the University of Washington Tacoma (UWT), a public, predominantly undergraduate, minority-serving institution (Asian-American, Native American, Pacific Islander, AANAPISI), only 28% of high achieving (high school GPA>3.0), STEM-interested at entry, Pell-eligible, first-time-in-college (FTIC) students undergraduates have entered a STEM major by the beginning of their 2nd yr, and the proportion is significantly lower for PEERs (persons excluded from STEM due to ethnicity or race [Asai, 2020]) at only 16%, representing a substantial equity gap. To address this problem, we developed the Achieving Change in our Communities for Equity and Student Success (ACCESS) in STEM Program. Supported by an NSF S-STEM grant since 2018, the program supports low-income, STEM-interested students by providing focused mentoring, a living learning community, a course-based research experience in their first year, and scholarships in their first two years of college. Based on the Student Persistence model of Graham et al. (2013), we hypothesized that these interventions would increase retention, academic performance, and progress into and through STEM majors. Our approach builds upon existing research demonstrating the importance of early research experiences (Thiry et al., 2012) and intensive mentoring and community building, particularly in the context of AANAPISI institutions (Nguyen et al., 2018).
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Combining course-based research, high impact educational practices, design thinking and strengths-based coaching to support the next generation of neuroscience researchers
Historically, there has been a challenge of retaining and graduating students as STEM majors. At CSU Dominguez Hills, a regional, urban, Hispanic-Serving and Minority-Serving Institution with a large number of first-generation college students that receive Pell grants, student persistence and retention is of particular concern.The purpose of this study is to study the efficacy of combining Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), High-Impact Educational Practices (HIPs), Design Thinking (DT) training and Strengths-based coaching into a First Year Seminar (FYS) course. A diverse group of first-year students from both STEM and non-STEM majors enrolled in a Neuroscience of Hedonism course where they participated in a variety of activities to 1) promote learning of basic neuroscience concepts, 2) conduct a research study using low-cost electrophysiology tools, and 3) support personal and professional development. In addition to studying long-term effects like student retention and persistence rates, we also measure recruitment of non-STEM majors to STEM majors, science identity/literacy, self-efficacy and a variety of career-related attitudes. This pilot study will provide a framework by which STEM departments can create a survey course to recruit incoming freshmen and encourage retention and persistence in STEM majors and subsequent careers.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2025257
- PAR ID:
- 10338851
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Abstracts Society for Neuroscience
- ISSN:
- 0190-5295
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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