Next Generation Educational Instrumentation to Train the Next Generation of STEM Students

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Educational Instrumentation project aims to increase access to cutting edge laboratory equipment necessary to provide high-quality undergraduate education to underrepresented minorities in STEM majors. The Illumina MiSeq is one of the most used instruments in the biological community, and this project will respond to an expressed need to teach and train our STEM undergraduates in the use of the latest technologies and applications used in the scientific community.

This project will result in curriculum transformation for experiential learning opportunities and create Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences and Undergraduate Research Experiences for students at a resource-limited institution. This problem is important as STEM advisory groups have indicated that curricula need to be overhauled, focusing on developing analytical skills by using the technologies and resources that students will encounter in the STEM workforce.

At small, primarily teaching institutions, students do not often have access to more advanced instrumentation and faculty members do not always have the time to pursue external funding as they have high teaching loads. Through experiential learning and research opportunities, this project will increase the sense of belonging, career preparedness, and research skills for these underrepresented minority students.

It will also provide them with opportunities to collaborate and network on projects with local community organizations.

The objectives of this project are to support underrepresented minority STEM students through improving access to next-generation sequencing technology, which is rarely available at primarily undergraduate, resource-limited institutions. The project also will be highlighted as a means to increase enrollment of these students through the research experiences and collaborative opportunities that will be provided.

Measuring the impact of this equipment on achieving the project goals will include using the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience survey to measure student gains, attitudes on collaboration, discovery, iteration and sense of belonging. Increased enrollment in biology, forensic science and environmental science majors will be expected by highlighting this equipment and its use within the classroom.

The project will also result in increased numbers of students participating in research, through courses, faculty projects, and internal research programs. By responding to an expressed need to teach and train undergraduates in the use of advanced instrumentation, this project will increase opportunities for educating these future leaders for adaptation and change.

The results will be broadly disseminated through presenting pedagogical changes and impacts, highlighting the equipment in student research at local and regional conferences, and through collaborations with local partners. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM learning and teaching at HSIs.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also 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.