Program Enrichment Through Research and Laboratory Instrumentation

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Educational Instrumentation project at University of Arkansas - Cossatot Community College (UA Cossatot), a 2-year, rural-serving institution, will strengthen undergraduate learning in biology, chemistry, earth science, and mathematics. Specifically, this project will secure multiple pieces of equipment, including an electronic autoclave, 3-D printers, a spectrophotometer, virtual and physical anatomy tools and models, graphing calculators, and science tablets.

These items will allow students to engage in hand-on learning opportunities across nine courses. Several of these courses include course-based undergraduate research experiences that will be enriched by the new equipment. An estimated 800 students will utilize the project-funded equipment each year across several associate degree and pre-professional programs.

The goals of this project are to enrich the learning and experiences of undergraduate students by upgrading and providing critical equipment, instruments, and computing resources in chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics. UA Cossatot is the only HSI in the state of Arkansas and is the only regional option for postsecondary education in Howard, Little River, Pike, and Sevier counties.

Acquiring new equipment will enable students to engage in STEM courses that will better prepare them for careers and/or transfer to 4-year degree programs. The project will assess the impact of the project-funded equipment using institutional data and student surveys in the impacted courses. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM teaching and learning at HSIs.

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.