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.