Impact on STEM Pedagogy at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón
General description of the project
“Increasing Student Success in STEM” is an NSF funded project by Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, (Sagrado), that began in October 2019. It aims to increase the number and percentage of students who remain in STEM majors, complete STEM degrees, and secure STEM employment or
enroll in graduate STEM programs, after an internship or research
experience.
We also seek to help first- and second-year students in STEM majors
overcome obstacles in gateway math courses, which are nationally
acknowledged barriers in STEM success. All Sagrado students (100%) are
Hispanic.
It’s known it’s important to integrate in a pedagogically sound way STEM
content to math courses by: Inquiry-based learning, Problem-based learning, and Mathematical modeling among others.
Math courses are bottleneck courses and students have a weak math foundation
after María, the earthquakes, and the pandemic, not only are they not
well prepared in math, but also have poor reading and study skills, etc
Students can’t see the relevance of math.
The proposed solution: redesign of math courses systematically
incorporating modern and effective teaching and learning strategies.
Technologies
14 workshops to math faculty on effective teaching strategies; during the
pandemic, via Zoom, for three semesters; with speakers from PR and
from universities in the mainland.
Opportunity for faculty to collectively decide which strategies would be
incorporated in which courses, which contents would go to which courses,
which contents would be taught using the new strategies, which content,
if any, would be left for students to learn virtually/online/on their own.
Types of activities incorporated using technology:
Types of activities (active learning)
Teamwork
Flipped classroom
Problem-based learning
Gamification
Simulation
Mathematical modeling
Explain project results
While some faculty reported no significant difference in grades or
student attitudes towards the newly incorporated active learning
activities, other faculty members reported better grades and
enthusiasm from students.
We have the results from focus groups done with students and faculty.
Also comparison of grades before and after the redesign and impact on retention.
Why it should be considered best practice?
There was an improvement in grades and an impact on retention.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
The redesign of courses was necessary and it had an impact on grades, attitudes, engagement, and retention. The incorporation of technology made the redesign of courses more effective and also that the professors worked in teams of two to redesign each course assigned to the team.
The Evaluation Committee will evaluate submitted proposals based on the following criteria. Each area will be rated on a scale from 1 to 7 (1= non-satisfactory; 7 =outstanding), for a maximum of 63 points.