Guest Contributor : Ginny Botts, Ed.D
In its first full year, the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities, a partnership between Florida International University, University of Central Florida and University of South Florida delivered key achievement on their collaborative efforts. One of the major wins during this first year brought together 75 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty to investigate student success in STEM fields of study. According to data from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, since 2010, Florida’s labor demand in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields has increased by more than 63 percent. As such, it is important to identify barriers that prevent students from excelling in this strategic area for the state. Over the course of this past year, our STEM faculty groups developed and refined their ideas. Here is a summary of their proposals:
Summer Workshop for Underrepresented Incoming Students in STEM
This one week summer workshop is developed to highlight the importance of mathematics in introductory STEM courses, specifically physics, chemistry, and engineering. The target audience for the workshop will be students who are about to enter their first year in college. A concerted effort will be made to recruit underrepresented minority (URM) students who are interested in STEM. Faculty from a range of STEM departments would be involved in the summer workshop. URM students would benefit from this workshop as it would encourage networking with other URM students who are interested in STEM, thus building a community of young scholars, as well as providing opportunities for faculty mentorship.
Florida Consortium Physical Science Capstone Research
A one term elective capstone course developed to teach students how to design, plan, and execute research projects. Created as a collaborative research capstone course for junior/senior physics/chemistry majors at FIU, UCF and USF, the students are expected to perform research with extra-mural partners (i.e., away from their home department), including the physics and chemistry departments of the Florida Consortium, National laboratories and local industry, among others. Faculty developed a proposal process for students who are interested in participating in the experience including: idea generation and approval, advising, and funding. A student assessment process was also developed to ensure students would be stay on track to achieve their research goals.
Aligning Learning Objectives between General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry
The purpose here is to develop and track a series of learning objectives from General Chemistry that are critical to success in Organic Chemistry. Once the learning objectives and concepts were identified, a draft assessment would be completed to analyze a students’ knowledge in those areas over time (i.e. beginning of general chemistry I, at the beginning of general chemistry II, beginning of organic chemistry, end of organic chemistry).
First Year Experience STEM Course
Faculty from four UCF disciplines gathered to revise the existing Strategies for Success (SLS 1501) course to focus specifically on the needs students who wish to major in STEM fields. The group is currently running a pilot section this fall and compare data with a control group SLS 1501 course. Faculty modified the existing course syllabus to include STEM focused course goals, STEM specific topics (such as reading scientific literature, studying in quantitative disciplines, scientific inquiry, and etc.). Additionally, faculty developed content and activities for the STEM specific topics to be included into the course. Moreover, the faculty generated a STEM resources guide to point students to the proper resources to fit their needs.
Mathematics
Calculus is important for many STEM fields of study and research has shown that many students opt out of proceeding if they perform poorly in Calculus. As such our mathematics team engaged in a few projects over the course of the summer the first was :a split calculus course (UCF and FIU) and redeveloping GTA training for calculus sections (USF). Faculty from UCF and FIU also developed syllabi for a stretched or split calculus course. Calculus I, which is typically offered in a single semester format, would be divided it into two semesters for students would benefit from a slower pace and just in time remediation of key concepts. Student grades in pre-requisite classes, repeating a pre-requisite course, or a score on a math proficiency exam would help to determine the crop of students that would benefit from this approach.
Additionally, USF’s math department opted to look at the Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA) training for calculus I sections and developed a curriculum to help the GTAs with calculus knowledge and how to teach calculus concepts. This one week seminar would include topics such as: making math visual, the impact of instructor pedagogy, and the use of flipped classrooms. In addition, GTAs would be briefed the on the concepts students misunderstand the most and how to address those concepts.
In summary, recently published U.S. Census data shows positive increases among college-educated Floridians. In fact, for the sixth year in a row, the total is up with 39.9 percent of working-age adults holding an associate’s degree or higher. However, the state still lags the national average (40.9 percent) and ranks 29th of all states. We need to work together to produce more college educated and career ready students. Furthermore, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity predicts STEM job growth will likely double overall job growth by 2021. The time is now. We’re confident that our collaborative efforts will contribute to major breakthroughs for our regions and the state at large. Here is a summary of 2016-2017 roster of reports and collaborative projects:
- Grant proposal in development to research the benefits of aligning liberal arts and STEM courses
- Male Student Achievement Gap Report
- Homeless/Foster Student Success Report
- Persistence Factors for STEM Students Top Ten Majors in Florida Report
- Top Employers in Florida for STEM Careers
- Florida Jobs Outlook Report
The best is yet to come.