Enabling Tomorrow's Research Scientists--The Next Level

Tougaloo College, Tougaloo MS

Investigators

Abstract

Tougaloo College, a small HBCU in Mississippi, through the HBCU-UP progam, will implement activities aimed at the following objectives: 1) to improve retention in gate-keeping courses in biology, chemistry and mathematics; 2) to strengthen STEM curricula through incorporation of new pedagogic approaches aimed at promoting a greater depth of knowledge of STEM; 3) to promote more faculty and student research in the sciences with the aim at increasing student enrollment in graduate and professional schools in STEM; and Supplemental Instruction (SI), based on the classic SI model, will be implemented in gatekeeper courses as a retention strategy. This activity builds on work done during the Tougaloo?s first five year HBCU-UP project. Other retention activities will include attention to co-curricular STEM activities, including support of STEM clubs on campus, and the development of a new one-credit freshman course for STEM majors. New pedagogy based on NSF funded Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) will be implemented in various courses, beginning with chemistry. In addition to the focus on gatekeeper courses, the curriculum development will include the use of web-based laboratories and development of new upper level courses to prepare students use of current scientific tools. Some courses proposed will incorporate informatics (including data mining tools), nano chemistry and biology, and in-silico biology and drug discovery. Activities aimed at recruitment, as well as ensuring better preparation of incoming students, are the summer pre-matriculation program that will impact 40 high school students per year, and coordinating with surrounding secondary schools to offer Physics. Tougaloo College is among US top 20 producers of female, undergraduate physics majors. The proposal points to an acute shortage of persons qualified to teach physics in the surrounding schools. In order to address this, the Tougaloo physics department will direct the offering of physics for high school students, which will be taught on weekends and evenings. Faculty and student research will be supported both on campus through the availability of faculty research grants, and off campus through collaborations with other institutions and laboratories.