HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Incorporating Research-Related Activities in Developmental Math to Increase A.S. STEM Graduates

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to increase the number of Associate of Science degree STEM graduates. This will be achieved through revising a developmental math course onto a problem-based learning theory, which is supported by research to increase course success and student retention.

The project is led by San Jacinto College (SJC), a Hispanic Serving Institution two-year community college located in the Houston metropolitan area where academic attainment is low. STEM education is a priority and students of Hispanic or Latino origin comprise 59% of all STEM majors. Houston’s energy, medical, and aerospace industries rely on STEM graduates, and need a more qualified and diverse STEM workforce.

This project will pilot redesigned curriculum for a development math course which has an in-class transition from a non-credit bearing developmental introductory algebra course to a credit bearing college algebra course. The intent is to retain STEM majors and influence their progression in STEM pathways. Expected outcomes include improving pilot course completion success rates for minority students; increase graduation rates of STEM majors; increase percentage of students enrolling in a STEM pipeline science course after pilot course completion; engaging more students in STEM research; increase project impact through the Rice University Summer Institute in Math that provides math faculty professional development in problem based learning techniques and hosting a public website of project results.

This project hypothesizes that community colleges that adopt curriculum built on the problem-based learning theory co-designed by a four-year research university will improve student engagement, retention, and academic success for underrepresented minority STEM students. The project has three goals: (1) provide science-based learning strategies in developmental math to improve student engagement and retention, (2) improve faculty awareness of teaching and learning strategies in a unique co-teaching model, and (3) increase student success rates to positively impact the students’ decision to persist into science courses for STEM majors.

Two core components are the (1) creation of a Summer Institute in Mathematics (SIM) for SJC faculty, facilitated by Rice University’s Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity and (2) implementing a new SJC math curriculum, where student participants’ classroom involvement grows and an increased focus on key math content needed for subsequent science coursework is employed. SIM will focus on evidence-based theories via intensive pedagogy sessions for SJC math faculty, provide dedicated time for curriculum development, and offer research lab tours at Rice to observe math principles in current research advancements, with the intent to implement innovative curriculum early in the STEM pathway.

A mixed-methods evaluation will be facilitated to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention to assist program administrators to identify the most advantageous aspects of this intervention for SJC faculty and students. 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.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.