Innovative Research, Industry, and Service Experiences to Increase STEM Engagement and Persistence at a Historically Black Community College

This project aims to serve the national interest by studying the effectiveness of implementing evidence-based practices for increased engagement, persistence, and retention at a Historically Black Community College (HBCC) in Alabama. According to the research, underserved students tend to benefit most from high-impact educational practices but are less likely to have access.

This project seeks to address this by providing: (1) service-learning activities, (2) learning communities, (3) research with faculty, (4) internships and (5) a summer bridge pathway to the college. Partnerships with local industries aim to ensure that students are prepared for the workforce with skills in emerging technologies highly coveted by employers in STEM fields.

In addition, this project intends to build upon relationships with four-year institutional partners by creating research experiences for two-year college students. A summer high-school bridge program creates an additional pathway of STEM interested students into the existing STEM scholar program at the college. Ultimately, this project holds promise to serve as a national model for historically black community colleges to effectively recruit and prepare students for STEM academic pathways and contribute to the research of high-impact educational practices that best result in STEM engagement, persistence, and retention.

The project team aims to work cohesively to implement a multi-faceted evidence-based approach to increasing STEM persistence, graduation and transfer to a four-year university. The approach involves a range of interventions and resources including research opportunities, internships, a summer bridge program, a STEM scholar program, and professional development workshops.

The main hypothesis of the proposed study is that providing STEM majors with opportunities to engage in at least one high-impact practice per year will positively impact STEM persistence and completion success. To effectively assess the achievement and impact of the project, a mixed methods approach utilizing both quantitative and qualitative measures will be employed.

Overall, this method allows the project director, as well as internal/external partners involved with the project, to focus on lessons learned that advance continuous improvement in the quality of student learning and the effectiveness of the program on students’ persistence, associate degree completion in STEM, and transfer to a four-year institution. This project has the potential to inform similar colleges of high-impact practices that work best for STEM majors.

Project results will therefore be disseminated to similar institutions and shared broadly across the undergraduate education landscape. Dissemination efforts also include use of social media, scholarly publications, and presentations at both local and national conferences. The NSF IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate the impact of and advance knowledge about emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges.This project is co-funded by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), which provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs.

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.