Grant Projects

Scheduled to occur throughout the length of the grant, several projects have been created in order to fulfill the grant's goals. Each project aligns to the grant's objectives and overall mission.

Goal 1: Increase the number of Hispanic/Low-Income students in STEM disciplines

Project 1: STCC will offer hands-on STEM demonstrations to local middle and high school students, as well as current STCC students who are in General Studies. This will take two forms. First, our pre-enrollment advisors supported through the grant will engage in outreach to middle and high schools with interactive demonstrations of different STEM activities. These outreach events will educate students about different STEM disciplines to increase awareness about fields of study and careers within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The advisors and other members of the STCC community will also offer these demonstrations on campus to attract non-STEM majors who may not have pursued STEM majors due to a lack of awareness of requirements, job opportunities, and associated activities. Second, STCC will host STEM camps for local youth to increase their awareness of opportunities within STEM disciplines.

Students were creating a touchdown vehicle, modeling safe spacecraft reentry.

Project 2: STCC will work with local and regional four-year institutions to offer a concurrent admissions degree, which would allow incoming students in selected programs to simultaneously be students of both STCC and the four-year institution. This would encourage students to consider the pursuit of a bachelor's degree in their academic careers. STCC and four-year partnering institutions will also provide current students with cross-campus activities, thus exposing students to opportunities like research.

STCC faculty and students view a helix shape through a light bulb filament, mimicking early experiments that revealed the structure of DNA.

Goal 2: Increase pass and retention rates by redesigning developmental and gateway STEM coursework

Project 1: Beginning in spring 2017, STCC will expand the criteria used for math course placement for incoming students. Multiple factors will be used to determine the initial math course that an incoming student should take. In addition to ACCUPLACER, students will also be accessed by their high school GPA and other determinants.

Project 2: Beginning in summer 2018, STCC will provide a summer developmental bootcamp for students who have placements in developmental mathematics and are entering "high-tech cluster" programs. Intended to be team-taught by members of the School of Engineering Technologies and Mathematics, participating students will learn the specific math skills that are needed for success in these programs with the goal of skipping out of developmental mathematics.

For more information about STCC's STEM academic programs, go to https://catalog.stcc.edu/content.php?catoid=19&navoid=3708

Project 3: Faculty in the chemistry department will design entry-level courses to incorporate Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) pedagogy, engaging students in hands-on classroom work.

Projects 4 through 7: Faculty in the mathematics department will redesign pre-existing or develop new courses:

    • Develop contextualized Algebra II for STEM majors, incorporating STEM content for smoother transition between developmental math and pre-calculus;
    • Incorporate self-reflective learning practices into Algebra I to increase student metacognition and self-efficacy, thus impacting performance;
    • Develop compressed Algebra I and Arithmetic course, allowing students who place into the lowest level of developmental math to take the second level with additional supports; and
    • Develop extended-time (five days/week) pre-statistics course, open to students with any developmental placement, to quicken entry into college-level statistics.

Goal 3: Provide student supports throughout degree program to encourage progression and completion

Project 1: Two pre-enrollment advisors were hired through the grant. They reach out to newly applied students, encouraging them to complete entrance requirements early. They will also encourage those students to persist in their respective academic programs. The advisors will also visit local middle and high school classes and other community locations to promote STEM programs.

Project 2: Slated to open in spring 2019, the STEM Center will offer tutoring, group study space, and other services and opportunities to STEM students. The STEM Center will have expanded hours, which will accommodate night and weekend students, increasing those students' access to computer labs and study spaces.

Goal 4: Provide high-quality professional development to support STEM faculty pedagogy

Project 1: STCC will work with Escala Educational Services to offer differing levels of professional development for our STEM faculty on the development of teaching skills for faculty at an Hispanic Serving Institute.

Project 2: Through our office of Professional Development, a year-long and summer intensive STEM Faculty Development Series will be offered. To maximize attendance due to scheduling conflicts, sessions will be held on Saturdays during the fall and spring semesters, and once during the summer break as a one-week intensive.

Project 3: The campus will slowly roll out an assessment software that will allow faculty to assess student outcomes in their classes regularly, allowing them to opportunities for real-time improvements. This immediate access to student performance on course outcomes can lead to improved student success.

Project 4: During Year Five of the grant, STCC will sponsor a regional conference on Hispanic student success in the STEM disciplines to share best practices among two- and four-year faculty and staff.