HBCU-UP: ASPIRE (Advancing Spelman College's Participation in INFORMATICS Research and Education) Project

Spelman College, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The HBCU-UP project at Spelman College is a program for Advancing Spelman's Participation in Informatics Research and Education (ASPIRE). The project will include faculty development and research activities, curriculum development activities and student support activities in support of the overarching ASPIRE project goal: to improve the quality of STEM majors through innovative, interdisciplinary Informatics education and research activities. The curricular activities include the development of Informatics modules for introduction into STEM courses and development of new Informatics course. The modules will be included in Physics and Chemistry courses, as well as in first year seminars which will impact all STEM students. Supplemental Instruction will be implemented to address the needs of eleven bottleneck courses which various departments have identified based on grade distribution in those courses. Underlying the curricular and supplemental instruction activities are faculty development and research activities, which aim to increase faculty knowledge of informatics, and develop collaborative interdisciplinary informatics research teams of faculty and students.