Collaborating Across Boundaries to Engage Undergraduates in STEM Learning

The College Of New Jersey, Ewing NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by studying how interdisciplinary collaborations in the classroom can improve STEM learning for all undergraduates. The increasingly interdisciplinary and complex issues facing our society requires diverse, STEM-literate experts from a range of fields who can work and solve problems in collaboration. Addressing this national need requires innovative, research-based teaching practices that retain students and improve STEM learning. This project will expand, improve, and study an innovative curricular model in which two undergraduate courses from different disciplines are taught in coordination. The instructors, goals, and outcomes of each course will be distinct, but the courses will be connected by a science-focused project that is developed through an active collaboration with a community partner. By the end of the project, 750 students will have experienced this model, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of its effectiveness. Furthermore, over a dozen faculty members in different disciplines will be trained in using effective strategies for teaching STEM concepts. This project will contribute to educational strategies that can produce the STEM-literate workforce needed to tackle the pressing interdisciplinary problems of our time. This project draws from project-based, collaborative, and community-engaged learning to design STEM classroom experiences that improve learning outcomes and retention for all undergraduates. This project will carry out a non-comparative group, quasi-experimental design to answer five research questions: (1) Does the model identify best practices that allow faculty members to harmonize cultures across disciplines and between the classroom and the community? (2) Is the model an effective method of improving undergraduate STEM education across different disciplines, and for which disciplines is it most effective? (3) What combinations of courses are the most effective for improving STEM learning? (4) Does the model improve STEM learning among historically underrepresented students? (5) What community engaged learning projects are best for improving learning outcomes for STEM and non-STEM students? To answer these questions, this project will support the formation of partnerships between instructors from three main disciplinary groups: STEM; Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences; and non-STEM disciplines such as the humanities and performing arts. STEM student learning outcomes will be assessed using multiple measures, including student self-assessment, faculty assessment, and pre-to-post performance on a standardized instrument. This project will provide the foundational information needed for future implementation of the model at other institutions, so that the impact of the proposed work may expand to STEM workforce development at a broader scale. This Engaged Student Learning project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all undergraduate students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. 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.