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1. Exploration of Critical Thinking Attributes in an Innovative Undergraduate STEM Program

   Martínez_Oquendo, Pamela; Gomez_Johnson, Kelly; Stevenson, Nikolaus; Cutucache, Christine; Rauter, Claudia M; Denton, Paul W (May 2024, The Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research)

   Raju, PK (Ed.)

   Experiences during post-secondary education can accentuate the ongoing, ever-changing process of developing 21st-century skills for undergraduate students. These 21st-century skills, including critical thinking (CT), are important for students to develop for competitive job placement after graduation. The future workforce requires diverse knowledge, skills, and dispositions to navigate complex and ever-changing jobs, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Purpose: This project aimed to qualitatively investigate previously determined quantitative attributes of CT to gain a deeper understanding of how these attributes manifest themselves in undergraduate STEM scholars’ problem-solving and decision-making. Sample: Twelve program undergraduate student participants from a STEM professional development program partook in completing materials for this study. Methods: We used a phenomenology approach to explore the nuances of CT attributes from the responses of our program participants. We explored how the eight CT attributes (induction, analysis, inference, evaluation, deduction, interpretation, explanation, numeracy) emerged from participant responses, in isolation and in interaction with each other in undergraduate STEM students’ responses to real-world scenarios to find potential trends or insights to better understand the intricate nature of critical thinking as a construct. Results: While we aimed to explore CT attributes in isolation based on their previously defined definitions, our findings demonstrate that certain CT attributes occurred concurrently with other CT attributes at higher frequencies than others (e.g., analysis and induction). These concurrent attributes show that undergraduate students identified various entry points to a real-life scenario, and simultaneously find multiple solutions to these complex problems. The findings of this exploratory study suggest areas for STEM program improvement based on the qualitative examination of whether CT attributes are present, and how they might also happen concurrently more frequently when undergraduate students face real-life decision-making scenarios. Conclusions: Findings from this study will help create a more robust program model for undergraduate student development to meet STEM workforce demands and competitive job placement after graduation. A deep understanding of what makes up this complex construct is essential to increase students’ CT skills. Further research in this area may explore how CT attributes offer additional insights for framing undergraduate professional development programs. With careful attention to distinct and concurrent attributes, carefully designed professional development might be more effective and transferrable to STEM fields. 

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2. Lived Experiences of Former STEM Undergraduate Mentors of an Afterschool Mentoring Program: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

   https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5674  

   Martínez Oquendo, Pamela; VanWyngaarden, Kristin; Cutucache, Christine (October 2022, The Qualitative Report)

   Studies have identified gaps in the development of undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Students lack communication and problem-solving, impeding employment opportunities post-graduation. It is essential to prepare students for employment in STEM fields, as these fields remain in high demand and offer competitive wages for economic stability. Research has revealed that students gain critical thinking and problem-solving skills through students mentoring experiences. Evidence surrounding the inclusion of active learning strategies for in-classroom pedagogy has expanded in recent years, but the support mechanisms beyond the classroom remain unclear. Herein, we followed students for a decade after participation in our mentoring pre-professional training program, Nebraska STEM for You (NE STEM 4U). This phenomenological study utilized interviewing techniques and descriptive statistics to demonstrate how a midsized, metropolitan university STEM mentoring program supported the development of NE STEM 4U participants. We found that engagement in an after-school mentoring program provided participants with a model of mentorship. Participants also developed transferable professional and personal skill sets, including communication, perspectives, conflict resolution, and professional development. 

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3. Impact of Peer-Assisted Learning and Leadership Development on Undergraduate Students

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--41968  

   Fogarty, Julie; Altman, Robin; Lundmark, Jennifer (August 2022, 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. 

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4. Board 330: Iron Range Engineering Academic Scholarships for Co-Op Based Engineering Education

   Spence, Catherine M. Siverling (June 2023, Review directory American Society for Engineering Education)

   This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 120 unique full-time students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in engineering. First semester junior, primarily transfer, students at Iron Range Engineering will receive scholarships for one semester. The Iron Range Engineering (IRE) STEM Scholars Program provides a financially sustainable pathway for students across the nation to graduate with an engineering degree and up to two years of industry experience. Students typically complete their first two years of engineering coursework at community colleges across the country. Students then join IRE and spend one transitional semester gaining training and experience to equip them with the technical, design, and professional skills needed to succeed in the engineering workforce. During the last two years of their education, IRE students work in industry, earning an engineering intern salary, while being supported in their technical and professional development by professors, learning facilitators, and their own peers. The IRE STEM Scholars project will provide access to a financially responsible engineering degree for low-income students by financially supporting them during the transitional semester, which has two financial challenges: university tuition costs are higher than their previous community college costs, and the semester occurs before they are able to earn an engineering co-op income. In addition, the project will provide personalized mentorship throughout students’ pathway to graduation, such as weekly conversations with a mentor. By providing these supports, the IRE STEM Scholars project aims to prepare students to be competitive applicants for the engineering workforce with career development and engineering co-op experience. Because community colleges draw relatively representative proportions of students from a variety of backgrounds, this project has the potential to learn how transfer pathways and co-op education can support financially sustainable pathways to engineering degrees for a more diverse group of students and contribute to the development of a diverse, competitive engineering workforce. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. As part of the scope of this project, a concurrent mixed-methods research study will be done on engineering students’ thriving, specifically their identity, belonging, motivation, and overall wellbeing (or mental and physical health). Student outcomes have previously been measured primarily through academic markers such as graduation rates and GPA. In addition to these outcomes, this project explores ways to better support overall student thriving. This study will address the following research questions: How do undergraduate students’ engineering identity and belongingness develop over time in a co-op-based engineering program? How do undergraduate students’ motivation and identity connect to overall wellbeing in a co-op-based engineering program? In the first year of the IRE STEM Scholars Project, initial interview data describe scholars’ sense of belonging in engineering, prior to their first co-op experiences and survey data describe IRE students’ experiences in co-op and overall sense of belonging. Future work will utilize these values to identify ways to better support the IRE STEM scholars’ identity development as they move into their first co-op experiences. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students. 

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5. Promoting the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organic Chemistry Education through Undergraduate Research Experiences at WSSU

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11080394  

   Guo, Fenghai; Young, Jayla; Deese, Nichele; Pickens-Flynn, Ti’Bran; Sellers, Dustin; Perkins, Dexter; Yakubu, Mamudu (August 2021, 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. 

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