Building Capacity: Integrating Research, Mentoring, and Industry Collaborations to Improve STEM Recruitment and Retention

Maricopa County Community College District, Tempe AZ

Investigators

Abstract

The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. This project at the Phoenix College will advance the aims of the HSI Program by incorporating multi-disciplinary Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) into STEM curricula in colleges throughout the district. The program will develop CUREs for three targeted audiences. For non-science majors, it will develop a community-based CURE model designed to promote science literacy, positive attitudes toward science, and recruitment of students into STEM majors. For STEM majors, it will develop a CURE model designed to increase retention, transfer and degree completion of STEM majors. For future STEM professionals, it will develop a workforce CURE model designed to improve workforce-related skills and interest in STEM careers. The program is expected to involve more than 3000 community college students. The specific goals of this project are to 1) promote increased interest in STEM disciplines, especially among students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM; 2) increase recruitment and retention of students in introductory STEM courses; 3) increase the number of students from two-year HSIs who transfer into STEM degree programs at four-year institutions; and 4) establish cross-sector partnerships with industry to improve workforce readiness and promote interest in STEM careers among two-year HSI students. The project has constructed a comprehensive plan for developing, implementing, and assessing CUREs in introductory courses at two- and four-year institutions. The program will train and mentor community college faculty in the process of developing multidisciplinary CURE modules that address research questions relevant to university researchers, industry partners, and the local community. Identification of the unique barriers and best practices associated with the implementation of CUREs at two-year HSIs will be a useful resource for other two-year and four-year institutions, including two-year HSIs that want to increase the transfer success of students from two-year to four-year programs. Knowledge generated from this project will be shared within the Maricopa County Community College District system, and distributed to the larger educational community through local, regional, and national publications and conferences. 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.