Building Capacity: Infusing Research as Pedagogy

Union County College, Cranford NJ

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 Union County College will advance the aims of the HSI Program by integrating research into undergraduate STEM courses. The project plans to embed course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into STEM gateway courses, support independent research experiences during the academic year, and develop a summer research academy. The project aims to provide students with research opportunities that increase student engagement, critical thinking skills, retention and graduation rates, and transfer into a STEM major at a four-year institution. Union County College has an economically, racially, and ethnically diverse student body. Consequently, this project can contribute to building a diverse STEM workforce. The project will examine how research opportunities may increase student engagement, critical thinking skills, student retention and graduation, and transfer into a baccalaureate STEM program. The project includes three coordinated interventions: 1) integrating course-based research into eight STEM gateway courses; 2) supporting independent student-driven research experiences; and 3) creating a summer research academy. These interventions will incorporate student-driven research into the curriculum, enhancing the traditional community college learning experience. The project will assess the impact of research experiences by comparing baseline and post-intervention populations using the Critical-Thinking Assessment Test instrument. In each of the three interventions, the project will use this instrument to determine critical thinking skills at the beginning and completion of the interventions. Students will also be tracked to examine retention in the major. Finally, data will be collected on student performance including grades, enrollment in STEM courses, and graduation and transfer rates. To examine the impact of CURES, a comparison will be made between students who participate in the CURES and baseline data for STEM majors. Students in the academic year research projects and research academy will be compared to students who did not participate, as well as to the college's baseline data. It is anticipated that the project may serve as a model for both two- and four-year institutions seeking to develop a research as pedagogy curriculum model to build critical thinking skills. 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.