HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: The Freshman Year Innovator Experience (FYIE) - Bridging the URM Gap in STEM

The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg TX

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to help freshman mechanical engineering students with their skills gap, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, to increase their chances for academic success and retention rates. The Freshman Year Innovator Experience will provide students with learning experience to develop critical self-transformation skills to help them face college’s academic challenges. Students will take two courses with parallel projects, in Introduction to Mechanical Engineering MECE 1101 they will work on a technical project: the redesign of a simple electric kitchen appliance while in Learning Frameworks (UNIV 1301) students will work on an academic project: the design of their academic pathways. Through adaptive expertise exercises, students will learn how to transfer engineering solving techniques as self-transformation skills from their technical project to their academic project. The outcomes of this project will include the coordinated curriculum development for both UNIV 1301 and MECE 1101 first-year courses, a summer professional development program for course instructors, and implementation and assessment of the coordinated courses. This work is important since it will equip students with critical skills to face academic challenges such as course planning, decision making, among others. This work will contribute a novel self-transformation approach where students apply technical knowledge to solve academic challenges. The project will broaden the participation of underrepresented student minorities in STEM at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, contributing to a diverse and prepared STEM workforce and encouraging them to pursue advanced degrees. The goals of this project are: 1) increase the number of STEM degrees awarded to Hispanics, 2) broadening participation of females in STEM related fields, and 3) increase the persistence and self-efficacy in STEM fields amid COVID-19. The project hypothesizes that the Freshman Year Innovator Experience effectively contributes to the retention of underrepresented minority freshman mechanical engineering students, particularly female students, effectively contributing to an increase in their persistence and self-efficacy. The theoretical framework combines design innovation, design of academic pathways, and adaptive expertise for student self-transformation, and it will help undergraduate underrepresented minority students to develop valuable skills for academic success. The project will advance understanding of student self-transformation skills for academic success. The specific aims of the project include the development of the coordinated curricula for UNIV 1301 Learning Frameworks and MECE 1101 Introduction to Mechanical Engineering first-year courses, an instructors’ summer training program, implementation, assessment, and institutionalization of the activities. It is expected that participating students will improve their retention rates by 10% and that the implemented activities become institutionalized. This project will provide socioeconomic development opportunities to Rio Grande Valley students, many of whom are first-generation college students and are not yet fully aware of career opportunities in STEM fields. Furthermore, it will provide an evidence-based approach to be implemented at similar institutions across the nation. 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.