skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: “Making” to the Future: An Innovative Approach to Undergraduate Science Education
“Making’ - a hands-on practice of creating technology-based artifacts typically involves integrating electronics, programming, or 3D printing. This paper describes the targeted infusion of “making” into undergraduate STEM education as an approach to encourage innovation while building capacity in the 21st-century technical STEM skills of engineering and design. “Making’ has the potential to impact self-efficacy and building capacity in technical STEM skills among underrepresented and underserved science majors. To investigate how “making” experiences are received by Underrepresented Minority (URM) students at an Historically Black College or University (HBCU), we applied and received funding through the National Science Foundation HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project (TIP) mechanism. The infusion included “making” instructional practices and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) into two undergraduate biology courses. Assessment data indicates the targeted - infusion courses were well-received by these communities with females exceling in iteration and communication of engineered designs.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1912188
PAR ID:
10459093
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Editor(s):
Gentry, Susan 
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education
Volume:
https://peer.asee.org/making-to-the-future-an-innovative-approach-to
ISSN:
2332-368X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
38410
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; (, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
    Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are an effective way to integrate research into an undergraduate science curriculum and extend research experiences to a large, diverse group of early-career students. We developed a biology CURE at the University of Miami (UM) called the UM Authentic Research Laboratories (UMARL), in which groups of first-year students investigated novel questions and conducted projects of their own design related to the research themes of the faculty instructors. Herein, we describe the implementation and student outcomes of this long-running CURE. Using a national survey of student learning through research experiences in courses, we found that UMARL led to high student self-reported learning gains in research skills such as data analysis and science communication, as well as personal development skills such as self-confidence and self-efficacy. Our analysis of academic outcomes revealed that the odds of students who took UMARL engaging in individual research, graduating with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) within 4 years, and graduating with honors were 1.5–1.7 times greater than the odds for a matched group of students from UM’s traditional biology labs. The authenticity of UMARL may have fostered students’ confidence that they can do real research, reinforcing their persistence in STEM. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Education Sciences)
    Undergraduate research is well recognized as an effective high-impact educational practice associated with student success in higher education. Actively engaging students in research experiences is considered as one of the several high-impact practices by many agencies including the American Chemical Society. Developing and maintaining an active undergraduate research program benefits both the faculty and students especially those from under-represented minority groups (URM). The infusion of research experiences into undergraduate curriculum enables students from all backgrounds to develop independent critical thinking skills, written and oral communications skills that are very important for successful careers in “STEM” area. Several strategies and activities such as a Peer Mentoring Program (PMP), funded research activities, the infusion of research into organic chemistry labs, undergraduate professional development, research group meetings, presentations at regional/national conferences, and publishing as co-authors on peer-review papers are vital in creating a welcoming research group that promotes the diversity, equity, and inclusion in organic chemistry education. The experiences working on funded research projects, presenting their research data at conferences and publishing papers as co-authors will greatly increase the under-represented minority (URM) students’ chance in landing a job or getting admitted into graduate/professional programs in STEM area. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; (, ASEE Conferences)
    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. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; (, Advances in Biology Laboratory Education)
    Boone, E.; Thuecks, S. (Ed.)
    Recent calls for increased inclusion in & access to authentic course-based research have been building on the momentum of support for Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). However, these courses can be very challenging to implement at scale or with low resources. To equitably provide these critical science process skills to the largest possible cohort of students, we have developed a new student research project within our first-year biology lab. Our student team research project is integrated throughout the semester, building authentic science process skills from start to finish. Students start from a research idea, develop a multi-site experimental design, do hands-on data collection at home, analyze quantitative data, and present their findings in a conference-style format. We have also embedded structured time for building collaborative skills. This novel change to our lab curriculum runs online, hybrid or face-to-face; it has no lab budget costs; and it has been well-received in multiple offerings of our course of ~200-600 students. It also has allowed us to improve our assessments: we evaluate writing (graphical abstracts) and/or oral presentation skills. Further, our lab exam can now be more cognitively challenging because our new curriculum better prepares students to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize. This article demonstrates that we can reduce barriers to doing authentic research, at scale in introductory courses; and we include here all materials needed to adapt this project to your own context. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, ASEE Conferences)
    Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have faced challenges in developing and maintaining engineering programs due to the lack of equitable resources including funds and technology. Partnerships between HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) have emerged as a way to increase the number of Black students in engineering through Dual Degree Engineering Programs (DDEP), often classified as 3-2 programs. Students in these programs attend an HBCU to complete all pre-engineering courses (typically three years) and spend their final undergraduate years (typically two) at a PWI. At the end of the program, students would have earned two bachelor’s degrees, one from the HBCU in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field and the other from the PWI in an engineering discipline. While there are many advantages to institutional collaborations, HBCU students must learn to adapt to an entirely new system and culture at the PWI. This scoping literature review examines research on Black students as they matriculate into a PWI from an HBCU while pursuing an engineering degree. The primary objective of this literature review is to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of Black students in DDEPs bridging HBCUs and PWIs. The review specifically sought to address students’ motivations for enrolling in DDEPs, the benefits and challenges involved with making the transition from an HBCU to a PWI, the factors contributing to their decision to pursue such a program, and their expectations regarding these experiences at the two distinct types of institutions. A total of 19 articles were identified and reviewed. Three main categories surfaced from the literature review, with two subcategories within the first theme: 1) references to HBCU DDEPs without the inclusion of student experiences; 1a) goal of increasing the number of Black students in STEM; 1b) engineering degree pathways; 2) HBCU student support and resources; and 3) the experiences of HBCU students in DDEPs. Synthesizing the literature revealed a crucial need for additional research on HBCUs in general. The study’s results emphasize the necessity for exploring the lived experiences of students in HBCU DDEPs. Further exploration could focus on the support and resources provided by institutions to students during their transfer to PWIs. This exploration of DDEPs promises to offer valuable insights into how DDEPs between HBCUs and PWIs can effectively and successfully prepare Black engineering students for their future careers. The findings from this literature review identify areas for future research. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email