| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 26, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 24, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 1902599 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Connie Della-Piana
cdellapi@nsf.gov (703)292-5309 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $599,929.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $599,929.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204 TEMPE AZ US 85281-3670 (480)965-5479 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
P.O. Box 876011 Tempe AZ US 85287-6011 |
| 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): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| 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
Meeting the mathematics requirements for obtaining Career and Technical Education (CTE) credentials is a common barrier for students who are pursuing certificates and/or associated degrees needed for careers in STEM-oriented technician fields. Based on current and prior work, an extensive review of the literature, and examination of projects funded by the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, a collaboration of eight rural Arizona community colleges and the Science Foundation Arizona Center for STEM at Arizona State University (SFAz) will continue on-going efforts to address this problem. As contextualized mathematics modules are developed, adapted, and implemented, these instructional materials will be shared through the STEM Network, a common resource and repository. The goal of the project is to improve student completion in Career and Technical (CTE) programs across rural institutions in Arizona. Project deliverables include contextualized mathematics instructional modules for use in either mathematics or technician courses. The project will support students in overcoming barriers to earning the required credits in mathematics that lead to successfully completing certificates and degrees in STEM-oriented technician programs. The project has the potential to provide Hispanic, Native American, and other students in rural areas with the opportunity and credentials to join the STEM technical workforce in Arizona, in welding, automotive, electronics, and construction technician fields. Moreover, the team will examine the outcomes of students who participate in the treatment (instruction using the modules) and those students who are in courses in which faculty do not use the contextualized mathematics modules.
To examine and estimate the size of impact of the use of contextualized mathematics modules in mathematics and technician courses, a matched comparison group design will be implemented. This design will allow the project to measure impact on student learning and retention as a result of the intervention. Propensity score matching will be used to create a comparable, matched pair of treatment and control students to examine and compare student outcomes.
The project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.
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.
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.
The goal was to apply the synergy of five rural Arizona community colleges to respond to a problem common to all of them: how to overcome the barriers that technician students face in achieving the math credits required to complete their credential(s) while also demonstrating their math competency. The colleges took different approaches for contextualizing math (CXM) either by adding relevant technician applications into existing technical math courses at Eastern Arizona and Central Arizona Colleges, embedding welding concepts into an existing math course supported by a welding lab at Arizona Western College, designing a math-in-welding bootcamp at Mohave Community College, or embedding math concepts into an automotive course at Yavapai College.
Faculty presented their findings and innovations at All-Council meetings on Zoom, conferences, and at annual in-person meetings hosted by a member college that routinely generated high interest and enthusiasm for the Collaborative. There is evidence of the need for and value of more communication and professional development interactions between math and technical faculty. One math faculty's presentation of math functions in a heavy equipment class is one example of such a collaboration.
One college worked through several attempts at integrating math into their Automotive program before hitting a home run with their new AUTO 103 class. Automotive and math faculty worked together to create a class that fulfilled the math requirements for Automotive and satisfied the math faculty sufficiently so that a separate math class could be eliminated and a fourth credit was added to the three-credit automotive class. Asking students for their comments about the course on a post-it note proved to be effective and resulted in constructive feedback. In several instances, students responded that they "prefer math embedded in a technical course rather than taking a separate math class."
The Bootcamp experiment appears to have been successful in its first offering in spring 2023. The collaboration of Adult Education faculty with welding faculty resulted in a satisfying learning experience for students who responded positively to seeing connections between math topics in the Bootcamp to the math needed in WLD 103. The Bootcamp, with its self-paced format, eliminated the problem expressed by faculty of teaching students with different skill levels. Students appreciate being able to fly through material they know and focus on topics less familiar to them.
What seems to be working well is reworking technical courses to include just the math needed to perform the calculations for a particular discipline. In cases where the technical math course was modified to include discipline-specific technical applications, there are mixed results as were evident in the responses to the faculty survey. Trying to make a technical math class designed for welding students cover all topics in a generic math class results in unnecessary math topics in the welding section.
Responses in student surveys tell us they want real-world applications; they like videos that show how math is used in their technical disciplines; they like group work where, especially in a generic technical math class, they can work with classmates in the same discipline; and they like self-pacing so they don't waste time on topics they already know.
The survey of faculty confirms what we know about faculty in the community college setting. They are very sensitive to their students' needs; they find satisfaction in seeing 'the light bulb go on' when students make progress in their learning; they are committed to improving the learning experience for the students; and they identified course components needing improvement.
Despite the slow-moving pace of change in higher education that was further exacerbated by COVID-related challenges, it is impressive what this Collaborative has accomplished. Various contextualized math (CXM) models have been piloted and much has been learned and shared by the members. The success of the Bootcamp and the AUTO 103 provides the incentive to develop a Bootcamp experience for other disciplines and for the technical faculty to work on adding a math component to other technical disciplines now that they have a model working well for Automotive. A critical factor in the success of this current project and the potential for continued success is a group of people who know each other very well and are truly interested in each other's projects, visiting each other's campuses, and continuing this important work together.
Last Modified: 08/06/2023
Modified by: Caroline Vaningen-Dunn
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