STEM PIONEERS: INCREASING SCIENCE LITERACY SKILLS AND STEM MAJORS AMONG FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS

Science literacy skills are an essential component of a university education, and increasing the number of STEM majors is important to meet future societal needs. We created the STEM Pioneers program to increase science literacy in first-generation college students and, hopefully, increase the frequency with which they declare STEM majors. We studied first-generation first-year students who indicated an interest in the sciences but did not declare a science major when they started college. We created a learning community that had a common 8 credit schedule and a newly-created course specifically designed to address science literacy (CSAM 101 Science Matters), regardless of major and planned career path. Students in the course engaged in discussions with leaders in business, military and science including those who were first-generation college students themselves. We also created a peer-mentoring network where small groups of the first-generation students could find support and community from other students. A corollary to this project was creating a professional learning community composed of staff and faculty in order to increase teaching effectiveness. The professional learning community met regularly to address the students’ academic and freshman-transition needs.

We administered a science literacy test (TOSL) and a motivation assessment (MLSQ) to two groups of students. The first group consisted of the STEM Pioneers: undeclared, first-generation students who indicated an interest in the sciences at the start of college. The second group consisted of freshman students who declared a science major before beginning college. These tests were administered at the beginning and end of the first semester to see the impacts of the course as well as track the improvements of first-year science majors not in the program. For the STEM Pioneer students, statistically-significant improvement was displayed in categories related to “solving problems related to quantitative skills” and “Justify inferences, predictions, and conclusions based on quantitative data”. The second year of the program will increase the number of students in the program and incorporate refinements and lessons learned from the first year.