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student experience
Leveraging significant grant funding, the School of Science and Technology’s STEM Education Innovations program offers unprecedented opportunities for students to achieve greater academic success and professional opportunities.
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The School of Science and Technology (SST) has launched its STEM Education Innovations program, which will revolutionize the undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning experiences at GGC, and serve as a leadership model for other institutions. This initiative is funded by more than $2 million in grants, supporting multiple projects that work together in an integrated strategy.
Core to the program is involving all STEM students in both course-embedded and faculty-mentored research opportunities during all four academic years. This innovative, multi-faceted model is based on Dean Thomas Mundie’s vision of a four-year, undergraduate research and creative experiences program.
This is a game-changing idea.
“The problem with the traditional, faculty-mentored undergraduate research model is that students typically do it in their senior years and work one-on-one with their professors,” said Dr. Judy Awong-Taylor, professor of biology. “But not every student has the opportunity or confidence to do that. We want all SST majors to have the research experience, and we want them to have it every year.”
So does the National Science Foundation, which awarded Awong-Taylor and her faculty team more than $1.6 million to continue their development of the concept, which merges the traditional faculty-mentored model with course-embedded undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), and to share it with similar institutions in Georgia and beyond.
SST faculty collaborate, design, implement and assess CUREs for specific courses in biology, chemistry, environmental science, exercise science, information technology and mathematics.
Structured to provide a developmental “scaffold,” the CUREs are designed to help students build targeted skills at each stage and apply them in the next. The process increases student engagement
in their classes and prepares them to take on individual research projects under the guidance of faculty members.
By the time they graduate, GGC students possess a broad range of work-ready skills and practical experiences that better prepare them for professional positions in research, industry or continued education. They also do better in school.
“Students who conduct research as undergraduates not only have greater success in their academic programs, they tend to continue on the path to becoming STEM professionals,” Mundie said. “In addition, we designed our STEM Education Innovations program to include other initiatives that ultimately support student success and enhance learning.”
The Peer Supplemental Instruction (PSI) program provides students with academic support and leadership opportunities. Students in gateway science courses engage in collaborative learning sessions led by more experienced and successful students trained in a variety of active learning strategies. This support helps students transition from high school to college courses, where students often falter and can potentially withdraw from STEM programs. PSI student leaders benefit from reinforced concepts and leadership development. The PSI program was first funded by a $25,000 Complete College Georgia STEM Innovation grant.
Service Learning integrates community service with real-world, problem-based instruction to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility and strengthen community connections. Students work alongside Gwinnett County Public Schools’ teachers to deliver hands-on science instruction to 5th graders. The program is designed to motivate elementary students to consider STEM majors and empower them with the problem-solving skills to succeed in STEM as they progress to the college level. In addition to forging important links with the community and future Grizzlies, the program improves 5th grade students’ science communication and lab skills while providing GGC students with leadership experiences.
In this series of photos, students are conducting courseembedded undergraduate research in the organic chemistry II synthesis project, taught by Dr. David Pursell, professor of chemistry.
Virtual Communities of Practice connect SST faculty with non-GGC faculty dealing with similar student engagement methods. This community will enable rapid transfer of ideas and best practices between GGC and external institutions.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning partnership between SST faculty and GGC’s Center for Teaching Excellence includes seminars and workshops on best practices in multiple teaching methodologies such as learner-centered teaching, course design, educational technology, student engagement, and the scholarship aspects of teaching and learning.
In addition, SST encourages development of new, more effective educational strategies by awarding mini-grants to internal and external partners.
An additional grant from the University System of Georgia STEM II Initiative will support improving STEM performance via high student engagement strategies. Led by Mundie, this grant of $510,000 will fund continued implementation of SST’s innovative vision.
“Our STEM Education Innovations program will position Georgia Gwinnett as a leader in STEM education,” Mundie said. “This benefits our community and state, but more importantly, it will benefit generations of Grizzlies who will earn a degree backed by robust training and experience that will serve them well no matter their career choice.”
