Growing Enthusiasm for STEM Through Engaging Teachers and Instruction

As demand in the United States is growing to engage more students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, postsecondary institutions are being challenged to find ways to improve recruiting and retaining students to pursue four-year and graduate degrees in these majors. For around a decade, national data and trends have pointed to gaps in achievement, representation, and interest in STEM across all levels of educational achievement, with Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations representing only 6% of the total STEM labor workforce (underrepresented minorities represent 25% of the total population in the United States).

Sul Ross State University (SRSU) in Texas responded to this disparity with its La Frontera Research Initiative (LFRI) for STEM education with offices on all four SRSU campuses in Alpine, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde. This multidisciplinary program seeks to shift the narrative in two main ways:

• Increase the number of highly qualified secondary-education STEM teachers from underrepresented populations. The students first earn a degree in a STEM major and then a certification in teaching in secondary education. These teachers, who are mentored by faculty members at SRSU, can serve as the gateway for underrepresented students who are considering STEM opportunities and careers.
• Implement and study instructional practices to improve STEM literacy through content-specific, digital pedagogical practices and culturally responsive teaching (CRT). SRSU is located in a vast area in southwest Texas, where a substantial digital literacy skill gap, which presented itself during the COVID-19 pandemic, exists because of accessibility and connectivity issues and lack of devices. In addition, the underrepresented communities SRSU is serving consist mainly of Latinx and Indigenous populations living in rural areas with farms and ranches. Many of them are English language learners and bilingual.

LFRI’s approach was created to better understand how literacy, CRT, and mentoring improve STEM education outcomes through targeted programming designed to increase STEM teaching certifications, the quality of STEM education teaching, and the retention of STEM undergraduates seeking a bachelor’s degree.

The institute is achieving these goals through its Noyce Scholars en la Frontera program and its La Frontera Initiative Mobile Makerspace STEM Lab. The Noyce Scholars en la Frontera (“en la Frontera” is Spanish for “on the Border”) program seeks to increase the number of STEM teachers in school districts on the Texas-Mexico border by 10%. The program awards scholarships and provides mentorship and professional development opportunities, among other benefits. The La Frontera Initiative Mobile Makerspace STEM Lab brings hands-on, informal, digitally enhanced STEM learning experiences to Latinx and Indigenous rural communities, particularly along Texas’ southwest border. Among the topics are renewable energy, agriculture, and climate change, with robotics, drones, and 3D printing, among other technologies, being incorporated in the presentations. Through the scholars program and mobile lab, SRSU has been witnessing an increase in the confidence and excitement of people in underrepresented rural communities to explore STEM disciplines. As LFRI evolves, SRSU plans to analyze and evaluate the institute’s work in educating its teachers in training and advancing CRT and content-specific, digital pedagogical practices. LFRI is seeking to answer the question: How does a CRT and mentoring program influence underrepresented and underserved STEM students in their pursuit of teacher certification from an institution serving isolated communities? SRSU’s strategies and results could be applicable to other higher education institutions that serve isolated regions with a need to improve their CRT approaches and technology integration in their STEM teacher preparation programs, as well as increase their pipeline of STEM teachers in training.

The Methodology

In 2019, SRSU began working on LFRI with the goal of improving STEM education and literacy through a teacher preparation program. A team of faculty members and university deans helped to identify the opportunities through which this concept could be explored and measured.

The team initially developed the Noyce Scholars en la Frontera program that not only supports aspiring teachers in the STEM field but provides faculty development to current teachers in the classroom in underrepresented populations, as well as faculty members at SRSU. The university partnered with Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) in Uvalde to build the teacher pipeline and several school districts, including Alpine, Marfa, Presidio, and Uvalde, to implement the program. These institutions were selected because they all serve high percentages of underrepresented minority communities. The program also received funding from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program—hence the reference to “Noyce” in the SRSU’s program name—which provides scholarships, stipends, and programmatic support to higher education institutions that recruit and prepare students in STEM majors to become teachers. The Noyce Scholars en la Frontera program’s benefits include the following:

• STEM teachers in training may qualify for a scholarship of up to $24,002 a year for two years. A condition of the scholarship is the commitment of the Noyce scholar to teach in a high-need public school for two years within a six-year period after graduation.
• Highly qualified STEM teachers could be eligible for a stipend to mentor a Noyce scholar for two years. The stipend will cover mentor training and participation in the mentoring program.
• Noyce scholars, Noyce mentors, and teachers may participate in professional development programs to improve STEM teaching practices, develop culturally responsive teaching approaches, and incorporate digital learning practices.
• Noyce scholars can collaborate with STEM faculty and high school teachers to encourage students to pursue a career in teaching in a STEM discipline.
• Noyce scholars and SRSU and SWTJC faculty can participate in community STEM events to include STEM Expo.

Knowing that SRSU serves a 400-mile area, the team considered that for LFRI to be more effective, the university would need to adopt a service-oriented approach and literally go into those communities to inform them of STEM literacy opportunities. In these Latinx and Indigenous populations, the majority of students have never seen a 3D printer or drone, still lack access to coding and broadband, and do not have access to quality computers. In response, the La Frontera Initiative Mobile Makerspace STEM Lab was born. SRSU partnered with the Science Mill museum in Johnson City and SWTJC to make the mobile lab a reality. Noyce scholars and their mentors collaborate with schools and public libraries located in rural communities with ranches and farms between El Paso and Eagle Pass. In the branded mobile lab, the scholars and their mentors provide fun, engaging STEM educational experiences based on the training they received. The instruction is focused on future-ready skills in the agriculture industry where technology is drastically changing jobs.

As mentioned earlier, SRSU intends to review the efficacy of LFRI. The CRT and content-specific, digital pedagogical skills gained by the teachers in training will be measured by the Culturally Responsive Teaching Survey and Teacher Efficacy and Attitudes Toward STEM (T-STEM) Survey. In addition, the Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for 21st Century Learning (TPSA C-21) is expected to measure faculty development that integrates diversity, equity, and inclusion to improve culturally responsive intervention and integrate technology in STEM content courses.

Key Takeaways

For a program similar to LFRI to be effective, the postsecondary institution must reach beyond its walls to build trust and partnerships. Meeting underrepresented minority communities face to face where they are is essential for building trust. The institution must establish partnerships with local school districts, public libraries, community colleges, and museums, among other community organizations and groups, to promote the program and encourage the community to participate.

Colleges and universities must have a program that can be accessible in various environments and to local populations. The equipment—high-tech and low-tech—must be mobile and reliable, particularly if the lab goes off road or encounters an area with no connectivity or extreme weather conditions. Signage and instruction must be in multiple languages. Doing so reinforces that the program participants value the different cultures in the community.

Editor’s note: In the feature image, Jose Gloria, a biology major in the Noyce Scholars en la Frontera program, teaches to children how to use coding and sensors to measure soil moisture for crops. With water resources stretched thin across the United States, it is more important than ever to conserve water. By manipulating the soil moisture sensors, individuals in the agriculture industry can save water by targeting crops only when they need water and avoiding overwatering, which can occur after it rains.