Progress 08/01/04 to 05/31/07
Outputs
Final summary of project Goals, Objectives, and Accomplishments for the 3 year grant period. A) Goal: Establish a Comprehensive Bioscience Program. Objective: Create and teach 4 bioscience courses with university transfer. Accomplishment: created and taught 12 bioscience courses with university transfer credit. B) Goal: Increase bioscience student enrollment, especially minorities. Objective: 15%/yr above the 42 (pre-grant enrollment). Accomplishment: 04 enrollment=167 (77 minority), 05 enrollment=341 (157 minority), 06 enrollment=409 (234 minority), a cummulative 974% increase. C) Goal: Expand bioscience course sections/integrate biotech into other STEM courses. Objective: Hire a lab assistant and adjunct faculty to teach biotech courses and integrate biotech into STEM courses. Accomplishment: A grant funded lab assistant was hired in 2004. This assistant was replaced with a fulltime lab technician fundded by SMCC in 05 & 06 (as science sections increased so rapidly).
Eight adjunct bioscience faculty were employed during the grant to teach new SMCC bioscience courses. Student enrollment in biosciences increased over 43% during the grant, whereas overall college enrollment remained the same. This led SMCC to purchase two new residential faculty lines in biosciences during the grant, increasing bioscience residential faculty from 4 to 6. D). Goal: Provide support services for student retention and success. Objective: Teach adjunct faculty to mentor and tutor bioscience students regularly, hire and train bioscience tutors. Accomplishment: SMCC created the Bioscience Group, composed of Co-PDs, adjunct and residential bioscience faculty and lab assistant. The Bioscience group met monthly and had one rule and one premise, the rule: share any concerns, issues, needs, or accomplishments; the premise: the solutions, needs, resources, and connections are all present at our meeting. We simply need to listen and help each other in our pursuit of advancing
biosciences at SMCC. Uncountable issues, needs, and problems were shared and resolved with resounding success by the bioscience group. This group forged a melding of the chemistry and biology departments from multiple perspectives that forever improved our institutional effectiveness and capacity. A SMCC chapter of MANRRS was formed in 2006 with 14 students and four faculty. E). Goal: Develop a research science research project course and internships. Objective: Students will follow scientific methods of inquiry and conduct a research project in bioscience classes, some will acquire internships. Accomplishments: Three new bioscience resarch project courses were created to help scaffold students through three steps of scientific research: conducting a literature review, writing a research proposal including creating protocols, conducting the experiment and analyzing the results. 63 bioscience research projects were completed by students through the grant, 6 student internships (four
with industry and two with USDA/ARS). A research project component was added to every bioscience and chemistry course at SMCC and this proved to be the highest regarded activitiy by students.
PRODUCTS: The products of the project include: 1). creating and teaching 12 bioscience courses that transfer for university credit; 2). Upgraded STEM curricula: biology, chemistry, mathematics, and geology faculty integrated biotech equipment and activities into their curricula; 3). A new bioscience webpage on the SMCC website; 4). A record 24 Associate of Science degrees conferred at SMCC in 2007; 5). six successful student internships in industry or government bioscience labs; 6). 83 students received USDA scholarships, research project fees, and/or fees to participate in science competitions; 7). a new SMCC MANRRS chapter created in 2006;
OUTCOMES: USDA funded faculty mentoring and tutoring resulted in a 97% completion rate (recieved a C or better) among SMCC students in bioscience courses. Student formative evaluations indicated that hand-on independent research projects using analytical equipment and oral presentations (authentic asessments) contributed most to their learning, motivation, and desire to continue in the field. Students praised the bioscience faculty and staff for their science expertise and their unusal ability to use almost any means to help them succeed. SMCC had three students graduate with Associate of Science (AS) Degrees in 2003, 24 of the 263 2006 SMCC graduates earned AS degrees and all 47 were transferring to a University in the Fall. The USDA/CSREES Grant helped SMCC increase college graduates earning AS degrees and pursuing STEM fields 16 fold. The 2006 SMCC Co-Valedictorian was a AAEC/SMCC student and former USDA scholarship recipient who recieved her AS Degree with Honors and Highest
Distinction (4.0 GPG out of possible 4.0). She was 17 years old and she recieved her AS degree one week before receiving her HS diploma. This student will recieve a full scholarship to attend the University of Arizona in Fall 2007 in pursuit of a BS degree in molecular biology. Another USDA sponsored student placed first in 2005 AZ FFA. Two other USDA scholarship recipients placed first in 2006 AZ FFA and one competed in the national FFA competition. The SMCC bioscience web page has been a proven recruitment tool and informational site for future and continuing bioscience students, industry, and the community. SMCC Biosciences was voted Innovation of the year in 2005 by SMCC. SMCC Biosciences was also voted Innovation of the year in 2005 by the League for Innovation and Maricopa Community College District. A $2,000 prize included with the Innovation of the Year Award was used to purchase bioscience reference books and a designated area in the SMCC library. SMCC held a bioscience
summer camp for City of Phoenix Workforce Connection in 2007 in which seven students successfully completed a bioscience project course and an internship in the bioindustry. This project is heping the City of Phoenix fill the bioscience pipeline for anemerging Arizona bioindustry. SMCC formed a similar partnership with Maricopa Tech Prep to help at-risk students pursue bioscience careers.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The SMCC Bioscience Website, located at http://biosci.southmountaincc.edu/, is the primary dissemination activity of the project. SMCC Bioscience faculty deliver presentations for bioscience recruitment and distribute bioscience brochures at local high schools, City of Phoenix Workforce Connection, and at Maricopa Tech Prep Program. SMCC conducts and promotes annual bioscience fairs for both college and HS bioscience students. Bioscience information is always distributed at the science fairs. Bioscience posters and brochures were provided to SMCC advisors and recruiters. SMCC Bioscience faculty meet with advisors and recruiters annually to update their information and help promote biosciences. SMCC conducts field trips to ASU Biodesign, USDA/ARS Arid Climate Lab, and T-Gen every semester to retain current contacts with our bioscience partners. PD Marshall Logvin is a member of the Arizona Biocommission, reporting and recieving bioscience updates and
opportunities in Arizona.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: A new bioscience project was funded by USDA/CSREES ($203K) in June 07. The project, Undergraduate Bioscience Engagement Track (UBET) proposes to: increase bioscience capacity at three high schools (capacity building), recruit and prepare high school students for bioscience careers, upgrade HS faculty bioscience skills, and provide college-level bioscience courses taught by college certified High school faculty for high school students through dual enrollment. The project proposes to attain at least 400 bioscience students and nine bioscience faculty in two years. SMCC was awarded $50K in June 2007 by the Arizona Community Foundation to train high school science teachers to better teach HS science students scientific reasoning skills requisit for biosciences. The one year grant will include four high schools, 15 faculty, and reach more than 1000 students. SMCC PD M. Logvin is also a member of the Maricopa Community College Bioindustry curriculum task force, a
district group of faculty charged with creating bioscience curriculum that meets the needs of the bioindustry (occupational) or possesses university transfer (academic). It is through this task force and the Biology Instructional Council that the bioscience courses produced through this project were approved and new ones will be created.
Impacts
Arthur M. Blank Foundation funded 24 HS minority students/year for two years to be partake in Achieving a College Education (ACE) Program and enroll in bioscience project courses for university credit. The project produced 44 successful graduates. The new SMCC & USDA/ARS Arid Climate Lab partnership, enabled bioscience students & faculty to share USDA/ARS resources and acquire internships. Two students completed internships at ARS last year, six more are applying this fall. USDA/ARS Scientists were invaluable mentors for students & faculty. SMCC, the college of choice in Phoenix for bioscience higher education is utilized by Maricopa Tech Prep, Phoenix Workforce Connection, Phoenix Union HS District, and Tempe Union HS District to recruit and teach college-level bioscience courses. SMCC was awarded $154K by US DOD in 06 for a scientific equipment upgrade to expand bioscience & STEM program capacity. SMCC received $76K in 06 & $35K in 07 from AZ Prop 301 to construct
and equip an analytical room. A new bioscience lab and a 2nd analytical room were completed in 07 with DOE Title V grant funds. SMCC added 2 new biosci faculty and 1 science lab tech because of bioscience enrollment growth, due in part to the USDA Grant. Finally, the grant enabled BIO, CHEM, GLG, & MAT faculty and staff to improve their effectiveness via the bioscience group. The goals are to create more conistency in inter-discipline curricula, continue to raise student outcomes, reduce conflicts in course schedules for students, & mentor bioscience students in MANRRS.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 08/01/05 to 08/01/06
Outputs
The following 2005/2006 goals and activities have been completed: Creation and implementation of CHM 236 and BIO 241 curricula in fall 2006 and approval of curricula for adoption in fall; Dissemination of CHM 236 and BIO 241 curricula to AAEC and sister MCCCD colleges; Project Directors trained two new bioscience faculty as mentors; Bioscience students developed 16 new research projects; Recruitment was expanded to include 22 ACE students from four local high schools; SMCC was awarded $54,000 by the Arthrur M. Blank Foundation that pays tuition and fees for bioscience courses at SMCC for high school students for two years; Revisions of created curricula were made and implemented. This included all students conducting a review of literature for their projects in Molecular Biology and additional time for students to conduct their research projects in Organic Chemistry so they could acquire expertise with the new GC/MS; A lab utilization matrix was created for the
analytical lab and user-friendly instructions were created for the GC/MS and additional instrumentation provided by other grants; Project Directors successfully completed Faculty Evaluation Plans (a year-long peer evaluation of faculty achievement, duties, and contributions to student learning) for submission to the SMCC Vice President of Academic Affairs while the MSE Chair and Vice President of Academic Affairs conducted annual evaluations of all bioscience faculty. Year two difficulties were that only four students agreed to present their research project at national symposia and the SMCC MANRRS Chapter had only two events last year in part because of the lead time needed to officially create a new club on campus. Planned changes to overcome difficulties: Students indicated on a survey given in spring 2006 that the primary reason they did not want to present at regional or national symposia or science fairs was because they felt their posters and presentation skills were
inadequate. Therefore, Project Director Marshall Logvin, an Intel ISEF and CARSEF award judge, created course materials to teach students how to create effective science posters and conduct engaging interviews at science fairs. Mr. Logvin will meet for four weeks individually with each student group interested in presenting at science fairs or symposia for all bioscience courses in spring 2007. MANNRS held elections for officers in May and created a draft of planned activities and fund-raisers for the 2006-2007 year. Chapter members will vote on the draft and it will be implemented in September so the club will be off and running early this year. New Opportunities: SMCC submitted two grant proposals to the Arizona Community Foundation, a non-profit foundation that receives business and personal endowments to promote higher education and research in science, mathematics, engineering and business entrepreneurship. Both proposals addressed a specific foundation need of increasing
underserved populations in biosciences in Arizona. Award notification is expected in October 2006.
PRODUCTS: Products from the second year of funding include a semester-long internship for a SMCC student at T-Gen, the premier biotechnology company in Phoenix and two student internships with the USDA/ARS. In addition, Dr. T.A. Henneberry, Executive Director of the Western Cotton Lab and Water Conservation Lab became a SMCC Bioscience Advisory Board member and signed a partnership agreement. SMCC also received thousands of dollars in laboratory and office equipment when the USDA/ARS Lab moved to a new Maricopa City site. SMCC also partnered with Arizona Women's Education and Employment (AWEE) to provide biotech career (one of seven targeted occupational areas of top priority in Arizona) training for their clients. AWEE will provide transportation, financial aid, and career services for students it sends to the SMCC Bioscience program.
OUTCOMES: High school and college students have produced twenty-eight research projects that are either continuing or completed. In addition, the bioscience students have delivered both local and regional oral presentations of their work. Fifteen of the student research project abstracts can be found at the following URL: http://www.southmountaincc.edu/Programs/College_Programs/BioSciences/ student+research+projects.htm. Bioscience summer camp enrollment was ten for the first year and twenty-two this past June. Eighteen of the twenty-two bioscience summer camp students this year were ACE students (meeting a recruitment goal of the grant to involve ACE students in biosciences) and their scholarships were funded by a new Arthur M. Blank Foundation Grant ($54,000 over two years) that was precipitated by the successful summer camp last year.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Following the success of the first year, SMCC Bioscience faculty conducted high school and college science faculty workshops this past year and had two high school bioscience summer camps. Eight high school faculty and five college faculty participated in the faculty workshops. SMCC began a new MANRRS chapter this fall. Fifteen students joined the fledgling leadership club and they kicked off with a Starbucks coffee and muffin fundraiser.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Future initiatives will be further addressed in forthcoming progress reports, including initiatives related to pending funds. The faculty mentoring and training activities will be continued monthly in future semesters. Spring activities of MANRRS included more fundraisers and a plan of activities and MANRRS officers for Fall 2006. SMCC submitted grant proposals to the Arizona Community Foundation that will expand both bioscience awareness in Phoenix and provide undergraduate research opportunities for high school and college students in the new SMCC bioscience laboratories. In the first proposal, SMCC requested $268,000 over two years to hire a residential bioscience faculty that would teach bioscience courses at both SMCC and local public high schools located in the Phoenix Central Corridor (composed primarily of minority students). The goals of this proposal are to upgrade high school bioscience instruction, high school faculty bioscience acumen, and increase
student bioscience course enrollment and access to higher education bioscience degrees and careers. The second proposal requests $210,000 over two years to purchase a mobile bioscience lab and hire a bioscience teacher to conduct bioscience lab activities with local elementary school students and their families. The mobile bioscience lab would operate during weekday afternoons and weekends. This proposal addresses the Arizona Bio-workforce Commission's primary goal of increasing the awareness of bioscience activities and possibilities in the community in order to garner more grass-roots support and strengthen Arizona's role in the bioscience industry.
Impacts
The primary goal of our project is to promote student success and excellence in the biosciences. The impact of increased access for minority students to a comprehensive learning environment based on experiential learning and internships is beneficial to the student and the community as well as the bioscience industry. SMCC Biosciences was recently awarded $70,129 (November 23rd, 2005) from Arizona Proposition 301 funds for additional bioscience instrumentation (a protein analyzer and fluorescent microscope). The US Department of Army Research funded an instrumentation project, C-DEP (Cross-Disciplinary Engagement Project), that provided $154,000 and enabled SMCC Biosciences to add an atomic absorption spectrometer, an ion chromatograph, a calorimeter, a scanning UV-VIS spectrophotometer, a refractometer, a new PCR, and additional gel electrophoresis sets. The new equipment enhances student experiences with analytical instrumentation and better prepares them to pursue
agricultural and bioscience careers. The US Department of Education funded a Title V collaborative grant proposal submitted by SMCC and GWCC for $2.4 million over five years. This project will fund the construction of a new bioscience lab and a new analytical lab (expected completion is December 2006) on the SMCC campus and increase institutional capacity by 20%. 2005 SMCC bioscience enrollment increased 104.2% from 2004, increasing from 167 to 341 students. The number of course offerings increased from 11 to 13.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 08/01/04 to 08/01/05
Outputs
The following 2004/2005 goals and activities have been completed: Establish laboratory with requested equipment. An analytical bioscience lab has been created and all requested equipment has been received and installed. Develop classroom curricula and offer new courses. Instructional materials have been created for organic chemistry (CHM 235 & 236) and molecular biology (BIO 247). New Bioscience Curriculum was submitted to and approved by the Maricopa Community College District Biology Instructional Council Chair in 2004. Four new bioscience courses were taught at SMCC in 2004/2005: Cellular and Molecular Biology, Special Topics in Biosciences (student-centered research projects), and Bio-safety. In addition, new instructional materials were used in all bioscience courses. Complete and review a recruitment plan. A recruitment plan with the AAEC was developed that included a program of study flow chart that navigates High School students through a bioscience pathway in
college. In addition, SMCC is seeking additional High School partners to increase bioscience enrollment. A review of the recruitment process last year resulted in expansion of SMCC Bioscience partners to include public high schools. Carl Hayden HS and Corona Del Sol HS faculty and administrators have attended SMCC bioscience presentations. Carl Hayden HS has accepted a SMCC proposal to become a bioscience partner. Science faculty and students participated in the first annual summer bioscience workshop and camp held at SMCC last June. More summer camps are planned for the future to promote bioscience enrollment. Create a student database. A database of local High School students interested in Biosciences has been created and is used in part to determine what college bioscience courses should be offered. Future updates and additions to the database will also include progress in SMCC college bioscience classes. Create a bioscience web site. The bioscience web site (see link below) has
been created and is continually updated with new links and helpful student resources. http://www.southmountaincc.edu/Programs/College_Programs/BioSciences/ Create and distribute materials to students. More than two dozen SMCC Bioscience presentations and promotional materials have been delivered at middle schools, high schools, and colleges. Bioscience promotional materials were distributed at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix (May 2005), and at the FFA science fair (2005). Hire adjunct faculty and student lab assistants. Three bioscience faculty were hired to teach SMCC bioscience courses, two with more than 10 years in research and education, and one researcher from a prominent private bioscience corporation in Phoenix. Two student lab assistants were hired to assist in chemistry classes. Train new faculty as mentors and provide tutoring. Faculty actively mentored bioscience students last year and additional faculty will receive training in mentoring
bioscience students this year. All bioscience faculty provided tutoring for students last year, including translating assistance for Spanish-speaking students learning bioscience vocabulary.
PRODUCTS: Products from the first year of funding include presentations at local high schools to faculty and students with supplemental recruitment materials, an ongoing reference library of spectra for FTIR equipment and analysis of organic samples, study guides for students on science research and literature review, foundation and expansion of a bioscience library accessible to students, a bioscience web page with resources and information for current and prospective students, two summer camps for high school teachers and students in the biosciences to develop curriculum and conduct research, bioscience scholarships for qualifying students to cover tuition and costs of the programs, student laboratory assistant positions, new and updated course materials and inquiry-based lab activities for science students.
OUTCOMES: The bioscience summer camp concluded with a science fair (open to the public) where students presented their research findings and explained their experiences. Students were able to participate in the Maricopa County Fair and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). One student was awarded the Future Farmers of America (FFA) first place prize for the Arizona chapter in 2005, and the SABiSCo was awarded Maricopa Community College District Innovation of the Year and the Paul M. Pair award for Excellence in Innovation. Various media attention was given to the SMCC bioscience program in both newspaper and television venues, and partnerships were formed with Northern Arizona University, local high schools, TGEN Corporation and Sandia Laboratories.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The creation of a specific web site for SMCC biosciences allows for prospective students to inquire about and apply to the program, as well as find resources for career paths and study skills. Presentations at local schools and to advisors allowed for dissemination of various recruitment materials such as flyers, posters, brochures, web site introduction, and student information cards for a database of student status and goals. A flow chart was also created for all advisors outlining suggested course pathways for students pursuing the biosciences. The bioscience summer camp fair offered an opportunity to inform the community about the program and opportunities available at SMCC, and examples of the experience of current students.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Future initiatives will be completely addressed in forthcoming progress reports beyond the first year. Additionally, our focus for the next year is on encouraging student travel for award-winning projects, expanding faculty mentoring services, advancing partnerships developed in the first year, and improving the interactive capabilities of the web site to further student access to resources.
Impacts
The primary goal of our project is to promote student success in biosciences. The impact of increased access of minority students to a comprehensive learning environment based on experiential learning and internships is beneficial to the student and community as well as the bioscience industry. SABiSCo was awarded Maricopa Community College District Innovation of the Year and the Paul M. Pair award for Excellence in Innovation. Click on the following link to view the award announcement. http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/innovate/ High school and college students produced fifteen research projects that are either continuing or completed and have delivered both local and regional oral presentations of their work. SMCC bioscience students used bioscience research courses to learn how to alter the genes of animals and recently succeeded in producing the smallest La Mancha dairy goats with high buttermilk content. Six students presented at The Intel International Science
and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May 2005 and one student was awarded the Future Farmers of America (FFA) first place winner for the Arizona chapter in 2005. SMCC Biosciences Creating a Collaborative Bioscience Learning and Research Center provides high school teachers and students opportunities to utilize the SMCC bioscience analytical laboratory. Teachers created science modules in summer camp for high school science classes. High school students that attended this summers bioscience camp conducted bioscience research with four residential PhD scientists.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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