HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Beyond Large Enrollments: Cultivating Student Success in Chemistry through Servingness-Centered Evidence-Based Pedagogies

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2 project aims to address the lack of representation and educational challenges faced by students in STEM fields at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The goal is to create a more inclusive and empowering learning environment in chemistry classrooms, focusing on empowering students' success and sense of belonging in STEM education. The project's innovative approach integrates active learning methodologies and a student-centered framework (or "Servingness") which aims to foster students' ability to navigate their multiple defining identities including STEM identities. This project will design, implement, and evaluate a new introductory chemistry curriculum that encourages students to navigate between their cultural identity and STEM research. The project will use a proven active learning curriculum called Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) and strategically introduce servingness-enhancing structures. The objectives are 1) examine how different instructional structures surrounding a POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) curriculum implementation either facilitate the academic success of STEM students or present barriers to the cultivation and pursuit of their educational goals, competencies, attitudes, and border crossing; and 2) identify the attributes that define successful culturally relevant pedagogy interventions within the college context and determine the culturally pertinent subjects that resonate with students from the New Mexico region. 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.