| NSF Org: |
EES Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 16, 2005 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 16, 2011 |
| Award Number: | 0506096 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Claudia Rankins
EES Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2005 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2012 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $2,675,796.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $2,828,020.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2006 = $572,705.00 FY 2007 = $567,843.00 FY 2008 = $551,794.00 FY 2009 = $560,767.00 FY 2010 = $25,120.00 FY 2011 = $28,750.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
#2 JOHN BREWERS BAY CHARLOTTE AMALIE VI US 00802-6004 (340)693-1202 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
#2 JOHN BREWERS BAY CHARLOTTE AMALIE VI US 00802-6004 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Hist Black Colleges and Univ |
| Primary Program Source: |
app-0406 app-0407 04000809DB NSF Education & Human Resource 04000910DB NSF Education & Human Resource 0400PYXXDB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
With NSF support through the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), the University of the Virgin Islands will enhance the quality of their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instructional and outreach programs as a means to increase participation in the Nation's STEM workforce. Project objectives include increasing the number and percentage of students that persist in STEM majors by increasing academic support and opportunities early in the students' academic careers; paying special attention to at-risk students; strengthening the undergraduate STEM curriculum through development of interdisciplinary major; and, integration of interdisciplinary research experiences.
Intellectual merit: The proposed project will optimize their institutional characteristics as a small, teaching university and build on the strength of its faculty to create strong interdisciplinary programs that encompass research and curriculum development. At the same time, the project will pay close attention to the first two years of the student's career and provide the necessary support to ensure the persistence of science and mathematics majors, especially among students who are most at risk for attrition.
Broader impacts: This project will develop a model for interdisciplinary collaborations in research and curriculum particularly suitable for small teaching institutions. Through cross-disciplinary links and links to larger universities and laboratories, the awardee institution will create an exemplary program that will provide sustainable research experiences for students and a fulfilling research environment for faculty.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
University of the Virgin Islands—HBCU-UP Project
UVI Science and Mathematics: Interdisciplinary Innovations
The University of the Virgin Islands is an Historically Black University, and a Land Grant Institution and is the only institution of higher learning in the Virgin Islands. The University of the Virgin Islands was funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, HRD 0506096, to achieve the following goals:
- Increase the number and percentage of students that persist in STEM majors by:
- Increasing academic support and opportunities early in the students’ academic careers, and;
- Paying special attention to at-risk students
- Strengthen the undergraduate STEM curriculum through:
- Development of interdisciplinary majors;
- Integration of interdisciplinary research experiences
The major components of this project were:
- Math Behind the Science aimed at strengthening the preparation of incoming Science and Mathematics majors through an intensive six-week summer program;
- Sophomore Summer Research Institute aimed at providing research experiences and professional development workshops to students whose GPAs may be between 2.0 and 3.0 with an aim to prepare them for more intensive research experiences on and off campus (e.g. SURE)
- Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) for advanced and academically strong
- Student Academic Support Services providing academic year tutoring support for all students;
- Research Scholars for high achieving students providing research mentoring during the academic year;
- interdisciplinary majors and interdisciplinary research experiences.
Intellectual Merit:
The project made it possible for the College of Science and Mathematics to upgrade and augment its curriculum through integration of interdisciplinary curriculum and research. The University now offers a new course in Bioinformatics, cross listed as a Biology, Computer Science and Mathematics course. In addition, new concentrations in Computational Biology for students majoring in Mathematics, Computer Science and Biology have been developed and implemented. Faculty in various science disciplines have developed interdisciplinary activity and project modules that can be used in various STEM courses. A computational Science lab was set up for faculty-student research, and there has been interdisciplinary research with faculty and student teams, including: Weather modeling and forecasting; Proteomics; Modeling and simulating animal behavior; and Data mining approach for coral reef health prediction.
Broader Impacts:
Through this project, the College of Science and Mathematics was able to realize a substantial increase in the number of students pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM fields. The College, through its HBCU-UP efforts, identified strategies to encourage students to attend the University and major in a STEM field, and also partnered with various University units to address retention efforts. A notable outcome of these efforts is that the number of students in the College of Science and Mathematics has increased by 40%, from an estimated 350 in AY 2005-2006 to 490 by AY 2010-2011. Many of the projects that were integral to this success have been incorporated into overall university approaches addressing retention.
The summer mathematics bridge program, Math Behind the Science, has assisted many students in matriculating into Calculus earlier in their college careers. This is especially important for STEM students at UVI, an open enrollment instit...
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