Increasing Student Success in STEM
General description of the project
Through our NSF funded project, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón seeks to help first- and second-year students in STEM majors overcome obstacles in gateway math courses, which are nationally acknowledged barriers in STEM success. “Increasing Student Success in STEM” (ISSS) focuses on peer mentoring, math tutoring, research and internships, and faculty development leading to key gateway math course revisions. These improvements will increase within-term retention, fall-to-fall retention, six-year graduation, and placement into STEM employment post-graduation. Through peer mentoring, we seek to support STEM students; we created a model of ‘Mentor speakers” who regularly give short talks to STEM students about their experiences as undergraduate STEM students. The project aims to engage first and second-year students in research activities mentored by faculty researchers. Math courses have been redesigned to incorporate active learning methodologies; this effort together with math tutoring aims at reducing math anxiety among STEM students.
Technologies
Math courses are taught using the LMS Canvas and have already been redesigned to incorporate active learning, and project-based learning, among other learning methodologies. In addition, web resources like Desmos and GeoGebra, among others, have been incorporated. The courses are hybrid. The math tutoring sessions can be offered in virtual modality, and can incorporate the use of Web resources.
Explain project results
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón aims to increase the number and percentage of students who remain in STEM majors, complete STEM degrees, and secure STEM employment after an internship or research experience. The overarching goal is to increase the number and percentage of students who successfully are retained in STEM majors and complete STEM degrees. The student population in Sagrado is 100% hispanic.
The project focus on critical transitions, particularly overcoming obstacles to success in mathematics (gateway courses to numerous STEM majors) in the first and second years and deploying high-impact strategies for the success of Hispanic students including peer tutoring, peer mentoring, research, and internships and faculty development leading to key gateway mathematics course revisions.
This project examines the effects of several interventions on within-term retention, fall-to-fall retention, and six-year graduation in the Hispanic student population that is primarily low-income. The high-impact practices are aligned with Tinto’s model, which supports a combination of proven and innovative strategies including mentoring, and research opportunities (Bordes-Edgar, Arrendo, Kurpius & Rund, 2011; Espinoza, 2011; Lacy, 1978, Martin & Meyer, 2010). These practices support students in key areas of the institutional experience such as academic performance, faculty-staff-student interactions, and peer group interactions. The interventions address critical transitions between all four years of the STEM educational experience, with a particular emphasis on the freshman and second years.
Why it should be considered best practice?
We are starting to see very encouraging results from the strategies that we have been able to implement, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was developed to assess participants’ satisfaction with their research experience. A substantial number of research participants expressed they were satisfied or very satisfied with their experiences, and indicated that their participation helped them decide on a future STEM career. They are pleased with the results of their work and are enthusiastic about applying to summer research internships on the mainland. These results were confirmed via a focus group. Sagrado’s Office of Academic Research and Assessment has provided us with data that indicates that all participants in ISSS-sponsored research are still studying in STEM-related fields (100% retention rate among research participants) and all have a GPA of over 3.0. Some research participants have been accepted to present posters at several national conferences (ERN 2022, EBC 2022, SACNAS 2022).
On the other hand, students who attended tutoring sessions substantially improved their performance in the math course in which they enrolled. No student who attended tutoring sessions failed their math class; most students passed their class with a grade of A or B as corroborated by data provided by faculty that taught the courses where the students were enrolled.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
The high-impact practices of the proposal (peer tutoring, peer mentoring, research, internships, faculty development, and course redesign) have already increased retention, persistence, and student satisfaction.
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.