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resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
As part of its overall effort to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. In alignment with these aims, the University of Washington will design and pilot an innovative leadership development program, NextGen Broadening Participation in ISE Professional Learning Program, to develop the leadership capacity of mid-career professionals, primarily from underrepresented groups in STEM, whose work focuses on broadening participation in informal STEM education (ISE). Unlike most existing ISE leadership models, this pathways project will employ a bottom-up, iterative design approach to engage program participants and garner new insights. Formative data and analysis will be used to better understand the broadening participation context, inform the model, and develop strategies and resources necessary to best support a more diversified next generation of ISE leaders. This pilot study is timely and significant. There is currently a substantial dearth of literature on the intersection between broadening participation and mid-level professional leadership development. Likewise, there are few comparable models in the current AISL portfolio. As such, the findings from this pilot will address critical gaps in the AISL portfolio and in the field, at large. It has the potential to markedly transform the capacity and impact of next generation ISE leaders. Over an eighteen-month period, this feasibility study will design, implement and test key aspects of the model to determine its potential for short and long term success. Using a competitive application process, twenty ISE mid-career professionals, who work primarily within broadening participation in STEM contexts, will be recruited to participate in the NextGen Broadening Participation in ISE Professional Learning Program. The year-long program includes four core components: (a) 4-day workshop, (b) four online webinars, (c) pilot projects carried out in participants' home institutions, and (d) poster presentations of projects at a national conference. A small cohort of faculty-mentors -- leaders from both research and practice in ISE broadening participation efforts -- will serve as participant mentors and play an integral role in the design and implementation of the program. Evaluative efforts will focus on documenting the efficacy of the design strategies (ex., recruitment, mentorship, social networking), the interests, needs, and professional growth of participants and the implications for broadening participation in STEM. The evaluation will be informed by data collected via interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations, content analyses of discourse, and participant deliverables. Formative and summative external evaluations will be conducted by the Garibay Group.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Bronwyn Bevan
resource project Public Programs
Increasingly, the prosperity, innovation and security of individuals and communities depend on a big data literate society. Yet conspicuously absent from the big data revolution is the field of teaching and learning. The revolution in big data must match a complementary revolution in a new kind of literacy, through a significant infusion of STEM education with the kinds of skills that the revolution in 21st century data-driven science demands. This project represents a concerted effort to determine what it means to be a big data literate citizen, information worker, researcher, or policymaker; to identify the quality of learning resources and programs to improve big data literacy; and to chart a path forward that will bridge big data practice with big data learning, education and career readiness.

Through a process of inquiry research and capacity-building, New York Hall of Science will bring together experts from member institutions of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub to galvanize big data communities of practice around education, identify and articulate the nature and quality of extant big data education resources and draft a set of big data literacy principles. The results of this planning process will be a planning document for a Big Data Literacy Spoke that will form an initiative to develop frameworks, strategies and scope and sequence to advance lifelong big data literacy for grades P-20 and across learning settings; and devise, implement, and evaluate programs, curricula and interventions to improve big data literacy for all. The planning document will articulate the findings of the inquiry research and evaluation to provide a practical tool to inform and cultivate other initiatives in data literacy both within the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub and beyond.
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resource project Public Programs
By engaging diverse publics in immersive and deliberative learning forums, this three-year project will use NOAA data and expertise to strengthen community resilience and decision-making around a variety of climate and weather-related hazards across the United States. Led by Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and the Museum of Science Boston, the project will develop citizen forums hosted by regional science centers to create a new, replicable model for learning and engagement. These forums, to be hosted initially in Boston and Phoenix and then expanded to an additional six sites around the U.S., will facilitate public deliberation on real-world issues of concern to local communities, including rising sea levels, extreme precipitation, heat waves, and drought. The forums will identify and clarify citizen values and perspectives while creating stakeholder networks in support of local resilience measures. The forum materials developed in collaboration with NOAA will foster better understanding of environmental changes and best practices for improving community resiliency, and will create a suite of materials and case studies adaptable for use by science centers, teachers, and students. With regional science centers bringing together the public, scientific experts, and local officials, the project will create resilience-centered partnerships and a framework for learning and engagement that can be replicated nationwide.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Dan Sarewitz
resource project Public Programs
This 4-year project addresses fundamental equity issues in informal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning. Access to, and opportunities within informal STEM learning (ISL) remain limited for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in both the United States and the United Kingdom. However, there is evidence that ISL experiences can expand opportunities for youth learning and development in STEM, for instance, increase positive attitudes towards educational aspirations and future careers/pursuits, improve grades and test scores in school settings, and decrease disciplinary action and dropout rates. Through research and development, this project brings together researchers and practitioners to focus on the experiences, practices and tools that will support equitable youth pathways into STEM. Working across conceptual frameworks and ISL settings (e.g. science centers, community groups, zoos) and universities in four urban contexts in two different nations, the partnership will produce a coherent knowledge base that strengthens and expands research plus practice partnerships, builds capacity towards transformative research and development, and develops new models and tools in support of equitable pathways into STEM at a global level. This project is funded through Science Learning+, which is an international partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Wellcome Trust with the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The goal of this joint funding effort is to make transformational steps toward improving the knowledge base and practices of informal STEM experiences. Within NSF, Science Learning+ is part of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program that seeks to enhance learning in informal environments and to broaden access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences. This Equity Pathways project responds to three challenges at the intersections of ISL research and practice in the United States and the United Kingdom: 1) lack of shared understanding of how youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds perceive and experience ISL opportunities across national contexts, and the practices and tools needed to support empowered movement through ISL; 2) limited shared understanding and evidence of core high-leverage practices that support such youth in progressing within and across ISL, and 3) limited understanding of how ISL might be equitable and transformative for such youth seeking to develop their own pathways into STEM. The major goal of this Partnership is for practitioners and researchers, working with youth through design-based implementation research, survey and critical ethnography, to develop new understandings of how and under what conditions they participate in ISL over time and across settings, and how they may connect these experiences towards pathways into STEM. The project will result in: 1) New understandings of ISL pathways that are equitable and transformative for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds; 2) A set of high leverage practices and tools that support equitable and transformative informal science learning pathways (and the agency youth need to make their way through them); and 3) Strengthened and increased professional capacity to broaden participation among youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in STEM through informal science learning. The project will be carried out by research + practice partnerships in 4 cities: London & Bristol, UK and Lansing, MI & Portland, OR, US, involving university researchers (University College London, Michigan State University, Oregon State University/Institute for Learning Innovation) practitioners in science museums (@Bristol Science Centre, Brent Lodge Park Animal Centre, Impressions 5, Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) and community-based centers (STEMettes, Knowle West Media Centre, Boys & Girls Clubs of Lansing, and Girls, Inc. of the Pacific Northwest).
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TEAM MEMBERS: Angela Calabrese Barton Lynn Dierking Carmen Turner Louise Archer emily dawson
resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance (CCEPA) is a consortium made up of the six Phase II Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP-II) program awardees funded in FY 2012. Collectively, the CCEPA is establishing a coordinated network devoted to increasing the adoption of effective, high quality educational programs and resources related to the science of climate change and its potential impacts. The establishment of a CCEPA Coordination Office addresses the need for a coordinating body that leverages and builds upon the CCEPA projects' individual initiatives. The CCEPA Coordination Office facilitates interactions to leverage a successful network of CCEP-II projects and individuals engaged in increasing climate science literacy. The efforts of the Coordination Office advance knowledge and understanding of how to effectively network related, but different, projects into a cohesive enterprise. The goal is to coordinate a functional network, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

The CCEPA Coordination Office at the University of Rhode Island is helping to move the CCEPA network forward on a number of key initiatives that strengthen it, reduce duplication, and enhance its overall impact. An important role of the Coordination Office is the facilitation of the transfer of best practices between projects. An effective network forges collaborations and establishes communities of practice through network working groups, building intellectual capital network-wide. The CCEPA Coordination Office has a key role in assisting the CCEPA project PIs and staff to disseminate the results of their work. Partnerships with other relevant societies and organizations assist the Coordination Office in identifying opportunities and synergies for sharing, disseminating, and leveraging network products as well as best practices that emerge as Earth system science education models and tools are evaluated. This endeavor broadens the collective impact of the individual projects across the country.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Gail Scowcroft
resource project Public Programs
This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by producing empirical findings and/or research tools that contribute to knowledge about which models and interventions with K-12 students and teachers are most likely to increase capacity in the STEM and STEM cognate intensive workforce of the future.

The LinCT (Linking Educators, Youth, and Learners in Computational Thinking) project at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will engage female teachers-in-training and youth from underrepresented demographics in immersive technology experiences and STEM education. LinCT will guide teachers to develop their understanding and use of technology in the classroom, as well as prepare youth for a future where technology plays a key role in a wide range of professional opportunities. The project aims to inspire teachers and youth to see the possibilities of technological competencies, as well as why the incorporation of technology can build meaningful learning experiences and opportunities for all learners. The LinCT program model offers learning and application experiences for participating teachers and youth and provides an introduction of technological tools used in SMM educational programs and professional development on approaches for engaging all learners in STEM. Both groups will provide instruction in SMM technology-based Summer Camps, reaching 1,000 young people every year. In each following school year, project educators will develop and deliver technology-based programs to nearly 1,000 under-served and underrepresented elementary students. The project will allow teachers and youth to deliver exciting and engaging technology-based programs to nearly 4,000 diverse young learners. As a result, all participants in this project will be better equipped to incorporate technology in their future careers.

The LinCT project will investigate effective approaches for broadening the participation of underrepresented populations by providing female pre-service teachers and female youth with opportunities to lead programming at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). Over three years, the LinCT project will employ 8-12 female teachers-in-training [Teacher Tech Cadres (TTC)] and 12-24 female youth [Youth Teaching Tech Crews (Y-TTC)] from demographics that are underrepresented in STEM fields. The integration of these groups will result in relationships fostered within an educational program, where all participants are learners and teachers, mentors and mentees. The results of this unique program model will be assessed through the experiences of this focused professional learning and teaching community. The LinCT research study will focus on three aspects of the project. First, it will seek to understand how the teachers-in-training and youth experience the project model's varied learning environments. Next, the study will explore how the TTC's and the Y-TTC's motivation, confidence, and self-efficacy with integrating technology across educational settings change because of the program. Finally, the study will seek to understand the lasting aspects of culture, training, and community building on SMM's internal teams and LinCT partner institutions (University of St. Catherine's National Center for STEM Elementary Education and Metropolitan State University's School of Urban Education).
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TEAM MEMBERS: Kathryn Guimond Sarah Cohn Joseph Adamji Lauren Causey Shannon McManimon
resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas at El Paso, Michigan State University, University of Georgia and University of California, Los Angeles will lead this Design and Development Launch Pilot to build the foundation for a national alliance that will prepare a new national STEM faculty, spanning all of post-secondary education, able to use evidence-based teaching, mentoring and advising practices that yield greater learning, persistence and completion of women and historically underrepresented minorities (URM) undergraduates in STEM. This project was created by this group of institutions, who are members of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), in response to the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) program solicitation (NSF 16-544). The INCLUDES program is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations focused on NSF's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in these fields. The INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots represent bold, innovative ways for solving a broadening participation challenge in STEM.

The full participation of all of America's STEM talent is critical to the advancement of science and engineering for national security, health and prosperity. Our nation is advancing knowledge and practices to address a STEM achievement and the graduation gap between undergraduate STEM students who are women and men, and between those who are URMs and non-URMs. At the same time U.S. universities and colleges struggle to recruit, retain and promote a diverse STEM graduate student body, and a diverse STEM faculty, who serve as role models and academic leaders for URM and female students to learn from, to work with and to emulate. This project, the CIRTL INCLUDES - Toward an Alliance to Prepare a National Faculty for Broadening Success of Underrepresented 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Students, has the potential to advance a national network of organizations to improve the success of future STEM faculty who will educate a diverse undergraduate body and contribute to the learning, retention and graduation of women and URMs in STEM fields.

The collaborating CIRTL universities will work closely with multiple organizations to address key goals, including Achieving the Dream, Advanced Technological Education Central, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Mathematical Society of Two-Year Colleges, the American Physical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the Council of Graduate Schools, the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, Excelencia in Education, the Infrastructure for Broadening Participation in STEM, the Louis Stokes Midwest Center for Excellence, the Math Alliance, the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, the National Research Mentoring Network, the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education, the Southern Regional Education Board, the Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching, and the Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network. Together, this extensive collaborative network will three goals: (1) To deepen the preparation of future STEM faculty in teaching, mentoring and advising practices that promote the success of undergraduates who are women and URMs; (2) To expand and strengthen faculty preparation specifically for 2-year colleges; and (3) To target the preparation of future STEM faculty who are members of underrepresented groups for effective teaching and mentoring, contributing to their early-career success. The seven universities who are partnering to lead this project will work to: (1) Form active partnerships and national coalitions for each of the three goals; (2) Employ a collective impact framework for each goal team and the entire alliance, ensuring common agendas, shared metrics, mutually reinforcing activities and an integrated process using data improvement cycles; and (3) Achieve pilot outcomes that position the alliance for future work.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Robert Mathieu Renetta Tull Katherine Barnicle Craig Ogilvie Leslie Gonzales Erin Sanders Judy Milton Mary Besterfield-Sacre Benjamin Flores Ocegueda Isela
resource project Public Programs
Non-Technical

Lack of diversity in science and engineering education has contributed to significant inequality in a workforce that is responsible for addressing today's grand challenges. Broadening participation in these fields will promote the progress of science and advance national health, prosperity and welfare, as well as secure the national defense; however, students from underrepresented groups, including women, report different experiences than the majority of students, even within the same fields. These distinctions are not caused by the students' ability, but rather by insufficient aspiration, confidence, mentorship, instructional methods, and connection and relevance to their cultural identity. The long-term vision of this project is to amplify the impact of a successful broadening participation model at the University of Maine, the Stormwater Research Management Team (SMART). This program trains students and mentors in using science and engineering skills and technology to research water quality in their local watershed. Students engage in numerous science and technology fields: engineering design, data acquisition, analysis and visualization, chemistry, environmental science, biology, and information technology. Students also connect with a diversity of professionals in water and engineering in government, private firms and non-profits. SMART has augmented the traditional science and engineering classroom by engaging students in guided mentored apprenticeships that address community problems.

Technical

This pilot project will form a collaborative and define a strategic plan for scale-up to a national alliance to increase the long-term success rate of underrepresented minority students in science, engineering, and related fields. The collaborative of multiple and varied organizations will align to collectively contribute time and resources to a pre-college educational pathway. There are countless isolated programs that offer short-term interventions for underrepresented and minority students; however, there is lack of organizational coordination for aligning current program offerings, sharing best practices, research results or program outcomes along the education to workforce pathway. The collaborative activities will focus on the transition grades (e.g., 4-5, 8, and high school) and emphasize relationships among skills, confidence, culture and future careers. Collaborative partners will establish a centralized infrastructure in each location to coordinate recruiting of invested community leaders, educators, and parents, around a common agenda by designing, deploying and continually assessing a stormwater-themed project that addresses their location and demographic specific needs. This collaborative community will consist of higher education faculty and students, K-12 students, their caregivers, mentors, educators, stormwater districts, state and national environmental protection agencies, departments of education, and other for-profit and non-profit organizations. The collaborative will address the need for research on mechanisms for change, collaboration, and negotiation regarding the greater participation of under-represented groups in the science and technology workforce.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Mohamed Musavi Venkat Bhethanabotla Cary James Vemitra White Lola Brown
resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The University of Georgia, Florida International University, Savannah State University, Clark Atlanta University and Fort Valley State University will lead this Design and Development Launch Pilot to address enhancing recruitment, retention, productivity and satisfaction of historically underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students who enroll in STEM graduate programs at primarily white (PWI) and research intensive (RI) universities. This project was created in response to the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) program solicitation (NSF 16-544). The INCLUDES program is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations focused on NSF's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in these fields. The INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots represent bold, innovative ways for solving a broadening participation challenge in STEM.

The full participation of all of America's STEM talent is critical to the advancement of science and engineering for national security, health and prosperity. Our nation is advancing knowledge and practices to address the STEM education practices for retaining and educating URM undergraduate STEM students at our nation's research intensive universities (RIs). This project, NSF INCLUDES: An Integrated Approach to Retain Underrepresented Minority Students in STEM Disciplines, has the potential to advance a collaborative approach by a group of organizations to improve the success of URM undergraduates in STEM disciplines.

The collaborating universities will work together for the purposes of empowering URM students to more effectively navigate STEM undergraduate and graduate education at minority serving institutions (MSIs) and PWIs, and for transforming the culture of PWIs and RIs. The team plans to use evidence-based approaches to gain insights into cultural differences that impact the success of URM STEM students. Three interventions will be included in the pilot study: (1) undergraduate URM student exchanges between MSIs and PWIs, (2) collaborative inquiry to engage URM students in social science research about issues and experiences of under-representation in STEM, and (3) the adaptation of resources from the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) to train STEM faculty to embrace diversity and improve teaching in diverse classroom settings. The project team plans to develop strategies to scale approaches and develop an alliance of institutions to maximize potential project outcomes.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Suzanne Barbour Juan Gutierrez Michelle Cook Joachim Walther Timothy Burg Jaideep Chaudhary Shekhar Bhansali Sarwan Dhir Mohamad Mustafa
resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This INCLUDES award to the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network will focus on building STEM research and teaching capacity of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). HBCUs and TCUs share the impact of disparities that affect their communities and are constantly seeking STEM research and education solutions to engage students and prepare them to be fully involved in developing innovative and effective remedies that will address these disparities. The QEM Design & Development Launch Pilot (DDLP) Project is a collaboration that will provide an underpinning for broadening the participation of institutions involved in improving the enrollment and retention of minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To be competitive in a future global economy, the Nation must make a larger investment in the STEM education of its underrepresented groups, including, males and persons with disabilities. Failure to make such an investment can weaken our STEM infrastructure and inhibit the continuity of the Nation as a world leader in STEM.

The project's initial partners consist of five HBCUs (Morehouse College, Morgan State University, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore) and two TCUs (Aaniiih Nakoda College and United Tribes Technical College) with the aim of expanding to 12 institutions as well as adding business/industry partners and STEM-focused professional societies. The goals of the DDLP project are to: (1) build and sustain an alliance to increase the participation of African Americans and Native Americans in STEM education, research, and the workforce; (2) strengthen the STEM research, instructional, and mentoring capacities of partner HBCUs and TCUs; and (3) develop and promote broadening participation (BP) practices to address academic and professional career needs of African American and Native American males to significantly increase their representation in STEM. The QEM DDLP will implement evidence-based and data-driven approaches to developing research, education, and mentoring activities that can be tailored to institutional needs and context. The resulting outcome will be an increase in the capacities of HBCUs and TCUs in STEM that will position these institutions for sustained contributions to national broadening participation initiatives.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Shirley McBay Leander McDonald Laura-Lee Davidson Eugene DeLoatch Juliette Bell
resource project Public Programs
The Mississippi Alliance for Women in Computing (MAWC) project will identify factors that influence and motivate female students and female African American students in Mississippi to enroll and persist in an undergraduate engineering- or science-based computing major. There is a particular need for programming that is inclusive of women and women of color who are from the southern region of the United States. These students typically have less access to extracurricular activities that encourage computing, and are less likely to visualize themselves in a computing major or career. This proposed research is to help girls to know that computer science exists and what jobs in computer science are available with a degree in computer science. A rich environment exists in Mississippi for an alliance focused on building co-curricular and mentorship opportunities. A scalable pipeline model, expandable to a Southern Alliance for Women in Computing (SAWC), will be developed with three major objectives: to attract women and women of color to computing, to improve retention rates of women in undergraduate computing majors, and to help postsecondary women make the transition to the computing workforce. Activities to support these objectives include: scaling the National Center for Women and Information Technology Aspirations in Computing award program in Mississippi, expanding scholarships for Aspirations winners, expanding student-led computing outreach programs, establishing a Mississippi Black Girls Code chapter, informing and collaborating with the Computer Science for Mississippi initiative, creating a summer bridge and living-learning community for women in computing majors, and increasing professional development opportunities for women in computing through conferences, lunch and learn meetings, job shadowing, and internships.

The project will analyze whether the co-curricular activities of MAWC lead to computing self-efficacy and ultimately female students selecting to pursue and persist in computing majors and careers. In order to understand student participation and efficacy changes, data collection for this research will be through demographic and background surveys administered to women entering an undergraduate engineering- or science-based computing major at a university in Mississippi and student surveys and evaluations in MAWC-sponsored programs. Using discriminate analysis methods, specific research questions to be addressed are: 1) Which pre-collegiate experiences influenced them to enroll, 2) Which stakeholders influenced these girls in their decision-making process, and 3) What programs are effective in impacting their persistence in the major. Predictor variables for each respective research question are: pre-collegiate experiences, stakeholders, and programs. Outcome variables are: (a) a female undergraduate student with no involvement with MAWC programming, (b) MAWC activity participant, or (c) a MAWC participant having graduated with a bachelor?s degree in a STEM major. Results will complement published longitudinal research on the gendered and raced dimensions of computing literacy acquisition in Mississippi as well as research on effective CS role model programming.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Sarah Lee Vemitra White
resource project Informal/Formal Connections
This project will address broadening participation challenges concerning underrepresented minority students seeking STEM degrees at institutions of higher education in Southern California. Data show that Latino students in particular are well-represented at local two-year colleges (TYC) but less well-represented among STEM bachelor's degree recipients. In order to promote success for TYC students with an interest in STEM, the project will build upon and expand the model for strengthening transfer pathways from TYC to four year STEM degree programs developed through the current program Strengthening Transfer Education and Matriculation in STEM at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). The pilot will focus on replicating the most effective components of the CSUF model at California Polytechnic State University Pomona (CPP). The pilot project will target STEM students at Citrus College, a two-year college (TYC) in Glendora, CA that feeds both CSUF and CPP. If the pilot is successful, it could be expanded to additional Southern California campuses of the CSU system and regional TYCs whose students transfer to these campuses. Once the most effective elements of the model are identified, the model could be adopted by all twenty-three campuses in the CSU system.

This project targets students who have already expressed interest in STEM careers, seeking to improve the rates at which they persist in higher education, transfer to four-year institutions, and eventually enter the STEM workforce. The project builds upon a proven model, seeking to examine the conditions under which this model can be replicated at institutions with different cultures and constraints, to develop better understanding of the elements of the model most essential for success, and to establish partnerships and create a pilot of the model at another institution. This project will increase the reach of an intervention model with a proven track record and documented positive outcomes. These interventions include an undergraduate research experience for the TYC students, peer mentoring at both the TYC and the four-year institution, a transfer support program at both the TYC and the four-year institution, and required advising and co-curricular activities.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Mark Filowitz Susamma Barua Michael Loverude Maria Dela Cruz