EAGER: Understanding STEM Majors as Ecosystems using a Large Corpora of Student Narratives

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in their efforts to significantly increase the numbers of students matriculating into and successfully completing high-quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to diversify the STEM workforce. LSAMP considered EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs) under NSF 24-1 to support early concept broadening participation research with the potential to have transformative impacts on undergraduate STEM education.

This exploratory research project leverages large language models to assist in the content analysis of qualitative data gathered from underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. The study takes an ecosystems model of STEM education, which characterizes students as decision makers in environments that actively attract or repel them. This perspective suggests degree persistence, or the continued pursuit of a STEM degree once declared, is influenced by factors at multiple levels – including the individual, their immediate academic environment, and their institution.

The project seeks to refine this emerging methodology by co-developing thematic codes with large language models, which will then be applied to analyze a large corpus of student narratives. By doing so, the research will reveal environmental determinants of STEM degree progression, specifically focusing on how these determinants vary across different institutions and majors.

The findings will inform strategic interventions ultimately contributing to broader efforts to increase diversity in STEM.

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.