Building Pathways for Hispanic Community College Students to Become STEM Teachers Through Mentoring and Experiential Learning

Cerritos College, Norwalk CA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 2 project aims to make more undergraduate STEM students interested in pursuing careers in STEM teaching. California's teacher shortage is acute in Southern California, where it has especially affected high-poverty, high-minority K-12 districts. These districts need many more, highly qualified STEM teachers with STEM degrees and teaching credentials, particularly in high schools. These classrooms also face a widening gap between faculty and student demographics, which can affect student learning and success. This project will provide undergraduates with paid internships at an informal science institution, the Columbia Memorial Space Center. Before and during their internship, the students will be mentored by college STEM faculty who have completed professional development to help them hone their mentoring skills. These activities are designed to address two regional needs: 1) recruiting and retaining students from HSIs who are on track to achieve a STEM degree and a STEM secondary single-subject teaching credential; and 2) broadening participation in STEM teaching and the STEM workforce. Teachers often report that they were drawn to the teaching profession by a positive teaching experience. Thus, this project intends to provide students with such an experience. After training at the College, student interns will have teaching experiences that include facilitating field trips and other learning experiences at the Columbia Memorial Space Center. Because at least 70% of the students at the college are Hispanic, most students participating in the internship will also be Hispanic. The expected project deliverables include outreach to at least 3,000 K-12 students, paid internships for up to 60 undergraduate interns, and improved mentoring skills in participating faculty. The project research plan is designed to advance understanding of the effectiveness of paid internships in informal STEM education settings to attract students (particularly Hispanic students) into secondary-STEM teaching professions. The project will address three research questions: 1) To what extent do the different elements of the project (recruitment, mentors, internship, etc.) contribute to community college students’ pursuit of STEM degrees and students’ perception of secondary school teaching as a viable STEM-related career? 2) In what ways does the project contribute to the development of students’ identity as both a STEM learner and STEM teacher? 3) To what extent do students’ experiences as informal science educators during the internship support the development of effective practices for science teaching and communication? The project will use a mixed methods approach, employing research tools that include focus groups, surveys, academic records, and validated research instruments. By the end of its three-year funding period, the program expects to achieve a 30% (18 student) increase in the College’s secondary teacher preparation pathway and that these students will be both pursuing STEM degrees and intending to receive a single-subject teaching credential in a STEM discipline. The 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 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.