Presentations: Session A

Students who feel a greater belonging to their university and department are significantly more likely to complete a degree. As such, it is important to examine what factors may contribute to sense of belonging in students from STEM disciplines, such as their demographics, values, and experiences. In spring 2021 and 2022, the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) Teaching and Learning Center collected data through online exit surveys from 1208 graduating students from 10 STEM departments (Astronomy, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Biology, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Computer Science, Entomology, Geology, Mathematics, Physics) at a research-intensive university on the east coast. Students were asked about the extent to which they valued specific cross-disciplinary skills (e.g., group-work, writing, data application), the proportion of their courses that utilized certain teaching practices (e.g., lecturing, writing assignments, group work), and the degree to which they felt a sense of belonging to their discipline. Multiple linear regression was used to identify student characteristics, values, and experiences that significantly affected student sense of belonging to their specific discipline. Additionally, we interviewed students from each discipline to contextualize and elaborate upon survey responses. Analyses identified differing factors as predictive of sense of belonging for each discipline. Interview data revealed being able to connect with peers promoted belonging, while feeling that classes were unnecessarily challenging (e.g., weed-out courses) and doubting their own abilities (e.g., imposter syndrome) decreased students' sense of belonging.

Student attitudes toward science and their identity as scientists may play a role in their success in pursuing science education and choice of careers. These elements are particularly relevant for students from groups traditionally underrepresented in science, as some of these students may experience "imposter syndrome" that can lead them to doubt their own abilities or choices. Considering that 50% of STEM undergraduates complete some of their scientific studies at two-year schools, and that two-year schools have high diversity, it is imperative we understand the motivations of two-year students to increase the numbers of diverse students completing STEM majors and careers.

We initially investigated: 1) What are student career and educational goals? 2) what are students' self-assessed scientific motivations and scientific self-efficacy? And 3) What are students' identities as scientists? We used a mixed-methods approach with a combination of student demographic, course outcome, and survey data from students in first- and second-year science courses collected 2019-present. These students are taking science courses, but many are not pursing science as a major or career path.

Surprisingly, our initial survey results revealed that motivation, science self-efficacy, and science identity were not correlated with career choice; but gender and race were highly correlated with career choice. This suggested that there are other factors that influence career choice. To further investigate, we have added a Science Scholarship program, a career exploration program, and faculty mentoring. We plan to report if participation in any of these co-curricular activities correlate with changes in career or major choice. To change the STEM workforce and better educate STEM students, we need to use these results to decide what the most beneficial interventions are for students to consider science careers.

Florida International University's (FIU's) Project Voces aims to amplify student voice and agency as a key institutional change mechanism in our campus' ongoing STEM education transformation. Project Voces (Voices for Organizing Change in Educational Systems) is a five-year NSF HSI Institutional Transformation project that launched in Fall 2022, and recognizes that student perspectives are usually an untapped resource that have the potential to transform educational systems. Thus the project embeds student voice and promotes student agency through a coherent collection of activities that directly impact students as well as facilitates faculty professional development and institutional policy changes.

Project Voces' core innovation is establishing an undergraduate Voceros program, developing their leadership skills, and integrating their agency into a comprehensive engagement of students, faculty, departments and the institution. This work buids upon existing successful FIU student leader models, including Learning Assistants that facilitate learning in STEM classrooms and JEDI Ambassadors who conduct Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion research in Engineering and Computing. Voceros will impact classroom instruction for all STEM students by partnering with STEM faculty through professional development institutes and co-designing asset-based curriculum that embraces student experiences. They will also engage in STEM education research to gain a wider perspective of institutional practices as well as lead a sequence of curricular reviews to improve transparency of STEM degree programming. These elements lead to an annual Student ComPASS event, paralleling an existing institutional accountability process, where Voceros will review institutional data and share insight on addressing concerns. As part of the communication mission, they will impact our South Florida community by unmasking student experiences through storytelling. Combined, these efforts intentionaly counter the norm that student outcome data is the domain of the administration. The presentation will highlight the project design, share initial outcomes and solicit insight from attendees.

The Transformational Change Initiative (TCI) was initiated in 2016 as a five-year project funded through an internal strategic reallocation of university resources to promote student connectedness and stimulate students' personal motivation to constructively handle challenges within and beyond the classroom. Research has shown that students are more likely to succeed when they feel emotionally connected, view difficulty or failure as a normal part of growth, have a sense of purpose, and develop the skills needed to take actions aligned with that purpose. Interventions to promote student connectedness are especially effective for STEM students who have experienced opportunity gaps, including historically marginalized populations, first-generation students, and women. The TCI was designed to create multiple, integrated touchpoints that introduce students to resilience-building strategies early in their career and enhance faculty capacity to transcend the didactic instruction model and connect with students when they need it most.

In this presentation we will describe the activities encompassed by the TCI and the data that were leveraged to secure the buy-in necessary for permanent institutional funding for sustaining and scaling the change initiative. We will share the initial goals and strategic plan for scaling our initiative within our multi-campus system, describe our progress in scaling our activities, and leverage a systems thinking perspective to reflect on our challenges to date. Importantly, we describe the potential barriers to and enticements for STEM faculty buy in to such initiatives. We anticipate that this presentation will foster discussion of key considerations in initiating and sustaining a multi-pronged approach to affecting change in undergraduate STEM education.