RCN-UBE: The Research on STEM Education Network: Improving Research Inclusivity through a Grassroots Culture of Scientific Teaching

University Of Alabama At Birmingham, Birmingham AL

Investigators

Abstract

Less than half of the students who begin their university careers in STEM majors ultimately graduate with a STEM degree, and this number is even lower for underrepresented minorities (URMs). Educational approaches that employ active, inquiry-based activities have been shown to improve persistence in STEM majors, but these methods are rare in introductory STEM classes, especially in the satellite colleges (e.g., community colleges and technical schools) where many URM and lower income students start their university career. The ROSE Network will seek to address this deficiency by creating a social network of faculty from both research universities and satellite colleges who share an interest in STEM education reform. ROSE will specifically work to introduce active learning and research-driven coursework to introductory biology courses at satellite colleges, and to increase the professional development opportunities for satellite college faculty. By implementing these reforms in areas with high URM populations, ROSE will seek to improve academic outcomes for these groups as well as to increase the proportion of URMs who choose graduate school or research careers after graduation. The ROSE Network will undertake three primary tasks in its first five years of existence. First, it will organize meetings linking STEM-education interested faculty from 3 research-intensive, URM-serving universities as well as a number of satellite colleges associated with them. These meetings are expected to nurture STEM education reform collaborations as well as to provide a critical support network for satellite college faculty looking to reform their courses. Second, ROSE will create a website and social media presence designed to increase awareness of STEM education research and resources available for faculty who wish to reform their courses. Finally, a ROSE postdoctoral fellow will be appointed who will provide critical assistance to satellite college faculty who submit proposals to design and implement active learning reforms in their classrooms. By seeding a culture of STEM education research and reform at the "grassroots" level of satellite college faculty, ROSE hopes to create a growing and persistent impact on undergraduate biology education. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/). Co-funding was provided by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.