Search for: All records

Eliza Keener, Dept of Engineering Technology, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV 26554, and Landon Brewer, Dept of Natural Sciences, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV 26554. Benefits of First2 Network immersive bridge programs at Fairmont State University.    The First2 Network’s Immersion program at Fairmont State University provides a college bridge experience for incoming students in science, technology and engineering and math (STEM). The First2 Network’s goal is to guide and assist rural, first-generation, and other underrepresented STEM college students. The summer immersion bridge experience immerses students into college life. Students stay in dorms and learn what it’s like to be away from home while engaging in a program which includes real research projects in collaboration with professors and peer mentors, introductions to campus resources, and social events. This program helps students get acclimated to college, making it an easier adjustment. The immersive experience also provides connections and a safe space that students can go to when they have questions or need help.     As students who attended the immersive program during the summer of 2022, we can say that it helped us greatly. Not only did we learn about all the resources on campus, but we got real lab experience. We were lab partners conducting analytical chemistry research on lead in paint. We performed all the lab work with supervision and guidance from chemistry professors and lab assistants. At the end of the 2 weeks, we presented our research to students, faculty, and family members. This immersion program was resume and experience building, that helped us make connections with our peers that a have persisted throughout our first year. 

Timely, formative feedback is important for instructors and students. In this project, “embedded students” provided instructors with formative feedback through anonymized reports. Students enrolled in preparatory chemistry course sections in fall 2022 self-selected to submit reports documenting their ongoing experiences in learning chemistry content. Embedded students journaled about (i) hours devoted to the course; (ii) topic-specific content mastery, comfort, and confusion; and (iii) instructor pedagogy. An average of 108 reports per week were anonymized and shared with instructors. Instructor effort was limited to agreeing to receive the weekly reports, look them over, and potentially use them to inform upcoming teaching. Embedded students benefited by thinking about their learning in the class (metacognition) and focusing their learning for the upcoming week. Overall, 300 distinct students submitted 1,513 weekly reports, with overall means of 2.81 hours per week of self-reported time devoted to attending lecture, 4.75 hours per week of self-reported time engaged in additional study, and 7.56 hours per week of self-reported total time devoted to the course. Instructors reported reading over 87% of the reports and using feedback to make an average of 4.6 instructional adjustments ranging from working additional practice problems on difficult concepts, providing answer keys to extra problems, implementing problem-solving/review days, and reviewing difficult material or content from earlier in the course. Instructors indicated that the weekly reports contributed to “instructor beneficence”. Students “felt heard” especially when instructors explicitly and constructively addressed comments from the weekly reports. This work is partially supported by the NSF-funded First2 Network. 

Abstract The First2 Network is a collection of people from K–12, higher education, government, and industry who are coming together to ensure that students of West Virginia, a rural Appalachian state, will be prepared to choose science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and persist in them. This project—funded by the National Science Foundation—combines many features, including semi-annual conferences, structured working groups, summer immersive experiences for students, a student ambassador program, and network improvement communities. The growth of the First2 Network is vital to make sure that these activities and programs are disseminated and sustained statewide. This article uses social network analysis to examine participation of people around the state during the first three years of the project. Findings indicate that the network is growing in number of people and in strength of connections. Network leadership members are playing key roles in the network, and student participants who persist in their STEM majors have stronger ties to the network. Social network indicators suggest that the network has manifested positive changes in the first three years of the project, which will lead to increased communication and collaboration among state agencies related to STEM persistence within the state. 

Underrepresented groups often face various, tedious obstacles when pursuing postsecondary education; many times, students find it difficult to impossible to overcome these obstacles and either avoid or drop out of college. The First2 Network is a statewide network of innovative stakeholders collaborating to solve and share STEM persistence issues. At the core of network’s shared vision is the assumption that students should be co-creators of the solutions. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s INCLUDES initiative, First2 hopes to double the retention rate of first-generation, underrepresented, and/or rural STEM students in higher education through many enriching and diverse opportunities, events, and initiatives. One of the most student-led and effective methods of outreach and support is the utilization of campus clubs across the state. Participants in this presentation will hear an overview about each First2 campus club and highlights of the work they are doing, how this work can affect systems change, and the benefits for those who participate. Ashlea Krasnansky, Dept of Mathematics, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, 25755; Erica Harvey, Dept of Natural Sciences, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV, 26554; and Beth Thompson, Dept of Natural Sciences, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV, 26554. An Overview and Analysis of First2 Network Campus Clubs. 

Many undergraduate students avoid mathematics classes due to math anxiety. This curtails options, particularly STEM majors where workers are needed and jobs are prevalent. This study aimed to investigate whether self-efficacy, mindfulness, and self-compassion predicted math anxiety. Participants of this study were undergraduate students (N = 345) from the Mathematics Department at a large Southeastern U.S. university. There was a significant difference in math anxiety scores between students pursuing STEM and non-STEM degrees. Non-STEM majors had higher scores on a measure of math anxiety. Hierarchical multiple regression results suggested that self-efficacy and self-compassion predicted math anxiety. There was a significant correlation, but not a predictive relationship, between mindfulness and math anxiety. 

In this article, we reflect on our experience applying a framework for evaluating systems change to an evaluation of a statewide West Virginia alliance funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to improve the early persistence of rural, first-generation, and other underrepresented minority science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students in their programs of study. We begin with a description of the project and then discuss the two pillars around which we have built our evaluation of this project. Next, we present the challenge we confronted (despite the utility of our two pillars) in identifying and analyzing systems change, as well as the literature we consulted as we considered how to address this difficulty. Finally, we describe the framework we applied and examine how it helped us and where we still faced quandaries. Ultimately, this reflection serves two key purposes: (1) to consider a few of the challenges of measuring changes in systems, and (2) to discuss our experience applying one framework to address these issues.