The Research Advancement among Careers and Education for Success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (RACE for Success in STEM)

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to diminish weaknesses in solving problems and critical thinking skills in mathematics, English, and Spanish among first-year science students. The Research Advancement among Careers and Education for Success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (RACE for Success in STEM) at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico-Ponce Campus (PCUPR) is a two-year interdisciplinary research project with a holistic approach. The project also aims to integrate social issues, which are vital elements of their emotional stability, self-confidence, and self-motivation at the undergraduate level. Students who will participate in our project are affected by today's socioeconomic hardships, academic adversity, and natural events like Hurricane Maria, Earthquakes, and COVID-19. Therefore, this project plans to compensate with a complete set of components that address the academic disparities and interpersonal intelligence. This project design will enhance the educational capacity, research skills, and sense of belonging of first-year undergraduate Hispanic students to improve retention and graduation rates in STEM fields.

The RACE for Success in STEM specific aims are: (1) To improve students' foundational academic skills needed to excel in STEM education; (2) To develop new strategies that support student transitions to advanced STEM careers through the information obtained from the student's family and social context; (3) To promote retention and inclusion by providing research, critical thinking and reading comprehension activities, empowering the students with skills necessary for the future; and (4) To elicit a sense of belonging in STEM education through peer-leading and research-leading activities. This proposal is a pilot project that will use a mixed-method design with qualitative (interviews and focal groups) and quantitative (GPA, course grades, and surveys) data. The proposed project consists of a pilot group compared to the rest of the student group (control) of freshman students registered in mathematics, English, and Spanish. The pilot group will also participate in the Student Developmental Plan consisting of the Self-Management Skills Development Program and the First Experience Summer Research Internship. The expected outcomes will show improvements in retention, academic performance, and persistence among first-year students and within the workforce in STEM. The proposed project will impact the curriculum in courses like Math, Spanish, and English, leaving an Institutional legacy with a new program in peer-leading and research-leading activities well designed and essential for students' success in STEM. The researchers will disseminate the project outcomes to the community through brief reports and local and national meetings (e.g., HSI Program). This study's activities and results will also be available online to the interested public through our home page: http://pucpr.edu, a section dedicated to the Pilot Project: RACE for Success in STEM. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.