A Strategic Plan for the Successful Participation of Minority Students in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology

Florida Memorial University, Miami Gardens FL

Investigators

Abstract

This planning grant proposal under the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program will enable Florida Memorial College (FMC), the only Historically Black College in the south of Florida, to conduct an assessment of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM), in order to develop an institutional action plan to enhance and improve the quality of STEM education programs. FMC serves the immediate community as well as many students from the Caribbean islands of African descent (Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Trinidad/Tobago, and Jamaica). STEM Faculty at FMC have long recognized the need to increase the number of students who matriculate in the STEM disciplines and the planning grant will facilitate strategic planning toward this goal. The overall objectives of this planning grant are: a) prepare students for graduate school by having tutorial programs specifically designed to increase the students' performance on the graduate record examination (GRE); b) strengthen the STEM curricula by offering courses (lectures and laboratories) at the lower level that would enable the student to be better prepared for 'upper level' courses that are more challenging; c) develop partnerships with nearby institutes/universities for the purposes of training both faculty and students in the STEM courses/laboratories; and d) decrease the poor performance of so-called bottle-neck courses (physics, pre-calculus, calculus series, and in some cases organic chemistry). These objectives will have one common outcome: the increase in graduation rates of students in STEM disciplines, and their entry into graduate school. What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? The project includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understanding the problems associated with the STEM program areas and how to address these problems. The project uses lessons learned, problems and practices used at other HBCUs to inform the project goals and methodology. Once data is collected and analyzed by FMC it will be used to create a well-designed implementation project. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? The goal of the planning grant is to develop quantifiable methods to recruit, retain, and graduate underrepresented students in STEM at FMC, and upon graduation, encourage and facilitate their entry into graduate school to pursue terminal degrees in the STEM fields. Implementation of these strategies will have a positive societal impact and an overall enrichment and improvement of scientific discourse.