Central Valley Region Interdisciplinary Science Education Research Symposium

University Of California - Merced, Merced CA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this conference seeks to serve the national interest by bringing together researchers, educators, students, and leaders throughout California’s Central Valley to offer an opportunity for significant interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaborations that will meet the needs of the undergraduate student population. Within this region there are more than 25 institutions of higher education, from community colleges to research universities, ranging in size from under 3,000 to more than 25,000 undergraduate students. All these institutions serve a student population that is highly diverse, historically underserved, and representative of America’s current and future demographics. The development of this symposium will be a cooperative effort between five of these Central Valley institutions (Fresno City College, Merced College, California State University (CSU) Stanislaus, CSU Fresno, and University of California (UC) Merced). Three of these institutions (CSU Stanislaus, CSU Fresno, and UC Merced) have received NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (IUSE-HSI) Track 3 grants. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from these grants have had few opportunities to share the important work that they have accomplished on these projects. Therefore, the goals of the symposium are to: (1) disseminate education research findings from the Central Valley community, investigate trends in education research, and identify future directions for education research and practice; (2) encourage and facilitate networking and new interdisciplinary research collaborations among faculty, staff, and students from Central Valley two-year and four-year institutions that results in rigorous research that addresses some of our nation’s most pressing education needs; and (3) provide a space for undergraduate and graduate students to discover and better understand the field of educational research and potential career pathways. Given our desire for this symposium to become an annual event, it will be important to assess how well the symposium meets both the outcomes listed above and meets the needs and expectations of the participants. To assess the effectiveness of the symposium, we plan to collect participant demographics, pre- and post-surveys of participants’ expectations, and track long- term impact metrics and dissemination records. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs are supported by this program. 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.