Non Technical Summary
?Emphasizing relevant and meaningful applications of science can improve diverse undergraduate students' motivation and learning of FANH (food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences). This project aims to build on prior research by developing and evaluating an interdisciplinary, place-based, online learning module: PBS-DIRT (Place Based Soil Data Interpretation and Research in Texas). The purpose of PBS-DIRT is to engage undergraduate students with relevant applications of data science and microbiology to improve their motivation and learning. Namely, we will conduct a multi-stage study where we will (1) develop a PBS-DIRT learning module focused on engaging students in collecting and analyzing authentic soil data from the San Antonio area, (2) revise the module and validate survey measures over several iterations of one-on-one interviews with students as they engage with the learning materials, (3) train faculty to implement the curriculum in microbiology courses at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and (4) implement and evaluate the module in full classroom settings using a quasi-experimental study design. Namely, we intend to use a pretest, posttest, comparison group study design to assess whether the PBS-DIRT module improves student microbiology knowledge, data visualization literacy skills, engagement, interest, and value in FANH compared to a control group. Findings will contribute to research on interdisciplinary STEM education by testing relationships between learning and motivation hypothesized by prominent learning theories, exploring the extent to which emphasizing data literacy can support microbiology learning, and will result in an intervention designed to support interdisciplinary STEM education and persistence for Latiné students that can be easily shared with STEM instructors in Texas and with the general public.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	0110	3020	90%
102	4010	1100	10%

Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
0110 - Soil; 4010 - Bacteria;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education; 1100 - Bacteriology;

Goals / Objectives
GOALS / OBJECTIVESThecentral goal of this project is to create learning environments that leverage underrepresented students' strengths to enhance their data science and food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences (FANH) learning and motivation. For this NIFA HSI submission, we propose to create a system of opportunities for diverse groups of undergraduate students to collect and analyze relevant place-based soil data using curriculum that we call PBS-DIRT (Place-Based Soil Data Interpretation & Research in Texas). Namely, we intend to (OBJECTIVE 1) create authentic learning experiences that support undergraduate students in: collecting soil-data from their "own backyard," sharing their data on a national collaborative database (the Tiny Earth Initiative), and analyze the data to identify new antibiotic structures and address personally relevant research questions; (OBJECTIVE 2) conduct formative and comparative studies of these learning experiences to investigate and improve their effectiveness for student learning and academic motivation; and (OBJECTIVE 3) support microbiology faculty at UTSA as they integrate these place-based soil data projects into their curriculum and assess the impacts on data literacy, FANH learning, persistence, and engagement. Generally speaking, we argue that engaging students with personally relevant, place-based data experiences can support their motivation, engagement, interest, value and learning.RESEARCH QUESTIONSMoreover, this project seeks to pursue these objectivesto address the following research questions:Research Question 1 (RQ1). How can a learning intervention be developed to leverage Latiné undergraduate microbiology students' sense of place for the learning of soil microbiology and data visualization literacy skills?Research Question 2 (RQ2). To what extent will such an intervention support students' microbiology knowledge, data visualization literacy skills, engagement, interest, and value in FANH compared with a control group?

Project Methods
METHODS EFFORTSPhase 1: Conceptualization of the Intervention Content. During Phase 1, the PDs will work together to develop the intervention prototype. The module will be designed to engage undergraduate students enrolled in a microbiology course (MMI 3722) in generating their own research questions and addressing them by collecting and exploring authentic place-based soil data from the San Antonio area. The module will introduce students to relevant problems related to the antibiotic crisis, prompt them to generate personally relevant research questions, provide a short tutorial on data visualization tools, and immerse students in soil data exploration as they respond to questions that guide them through soil microbiology content. Initial efforts to revise our existing pilot design will be directed at (a) creating more interactive data-analysis elements into the module (e.g., by integrating Shiny Applications that enable students to run data analyses within the module environment), (b) centering student inquiry by prompting them to generate research questions that might be addressed using the embedded data analysis apps, and (c) creating course materials that facilitate routines around the student sourcing of place-based soil data and antibiotic discovery (e.g., we will create course materials/videos/handouts that facilitate students' collection of local soils, obtain genomic/metabolomic analysis, upload data to the global database, and analyze the data to discover new antibiotic structures). This will include regularly discussing the materials with the team (PDs, research assistants, and participating faculty) for review and revision.Furthermore, during this phase, two UTSA microbiology faculty will be incentivized to complete a five-day virtual Tiny Earth Partner Instructors (TEPI) training (often offered in January) to introduce faculty to the TinyEarth curricular materials and integrate the curriculum into their syllabus for the forthcoming school year.Phase 2: Intervention Development & Faculty Training (Formative Studies). To answer our first research question, we will use a design-based research (DBR) approach to guide the re-development and revision of an interactive module focused on the use of data visualizations to explore place-based soil data. As is characteristic of DBR, the re-design, implementation, and revisions of the intervention will occur over several iterations (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012; Hoadley & Campos, 2022) and will result in an open-source module geared for promoting place-based learning among underrepresented students in microbiology, offer a microcredential, and can be easily shared with practitioners and the general public online.Over the course of three design iterations, we will conduct 20-30 recorded cognitive interviews (Desimone & Le Floch; 2004) via Zoom with a convenience sample of undergraduate UTSA students participating in microbiology courses taught by Dr. Shields-Menard (Co-PD) in Summer 2025. Interviews will be conducted virtually outside of the scheduled course meeting time and will concentrate on eliciting student feedback to guide the revision of the module and pre-test, post-test survey instruments. Revisions will concentrate on adapting survey instruments so items are interpreted as intended, revising the module to be appealing and engaging for UTSA students as to build from their interests and values, elicit a sense-of place, improve ease of data analyses, and incorporating visualizations that reveal relevant insights about the soil data. The finalized intervention and survey instruments will be used in Phase 3.During Phase 2, participating instructors will also meet with the PDs for a 1-2 hour faculty development summarizing theory and implementation procedures of the PBS-DIRT project in preparation for Phase 3. Any new faculty will additionally complete the TEPI training.Phase 3: Testing the Efficacy of the Intervention for Improving Student Outcomes (Comparative Studies). To answer the second research question, each semester we will recruit N = 100-200 students over the course of five semesters (N = 500-1000 students total). The sample size exceeds a rounded estimate from an a priori power analysis using G*Power which found the sample size required to detect an effect size of 0.15 for an F test with five predictors, power of .95, and alpha level of .05 (Erdfelder et al., 1996). Our goal is to recruitapproximately 66% of the student sample from two undergraduate microbiology courses (treatment group) and the remainder of the sample from a third course (comparison group). All participants will first complete a pretest questionnaire that measures their microbiology and data visualization literacy knowledge (researcher created; validated in Phase 2), STEM interest and task value (Hulleman et al., 2010), and emotional and cognitive engagement (Reeve, 2013). Cited measures have shown to be reliable with undergraduate students in prior studies, the 10 item microbiology measure we created was found in the pilot study to be reliable at pretest and posttest (α = .62, .72 respectively), and the Data-Literacy measure will be developed in Phase 1 and piloted with UTSA undergraduate students and validated in cognitive interviews during Phase 2.After the pretest, learners will complete the PBS-DIRT module (treatment group) or a comparative "business as usual" lesson (comparison group). Participants will then complete an identical post-test of microbiology knowledge, data literacy, STEM interest, emotional and cognitive engagement, task value, and a demographics questionnaire.EVALUATIONDevelopment of the PBS-DIRT Module (RQ1). Upon each iteration of pilot interviews, Zoom recordings will be transcribed and open-coded for varying dimensions of student thinking (Corbin & Strauss, 2014; Saldaña, 2021) with special attention to examining student engagement and learning around soil microbiology and data literacy. Informed by these analyses, various aspects of the module will be revised to: build from students' personal interests, sense of place, improve interpretability, accessibility, usability, and effectiveness before undergoing subsequent iterations of interviews, and ultimately used in Phase 3. Further, this phase will provide cognitive interview data on our survey items, and will provide evidence on whether students interpret the items as intended, and indicate potential revisions to improve their validity.Effects of the GenAI Module (RQ2). To assess the effects of the module on microbiology knowledge, data visualization literacy skills, engagement, interest, and value in STEM (RQ2), we will use multiple regression analyses with robust standard errors using separate models for knowledge, engagement, interest, and value. Main predictors will be the treatment condition and pre-test scores when applicable. We will also include cohort fixed effects to account for cohort-level differences. We predict that the PBS-DIRT modules engaging students in place-based data exploration will significantly improve learning and motivation outcomes compared to the control groups. These predictions are based on theory that novel information can lead to conceptual change when comprehensible, compelling, and engaging (Lombardi et al., 2016). Additionally, we will conduct exploratory path analyses to test whether there are indirect effects of the intervention on microbiology and data visualization knowledge outcomes as mediated by motivational processes and mechanisms (Hulleman et al., 2021).External Evaluation.We have also enlisted the support of the Urban Education Institute (UEI) directed by Dr. Sharon Nichols, an organization that conducts program evaluation for researchers within UTSA and throughout the local community. She will convene a panel of experts to will meet four times to assess the efficacy of Phases 2 and 3 of ourproject in reaching stated objectives.