Recipient Organization
California State University, Los Angeles
ORSP/GE 3rd floor
Los Angeles,CA 90032
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Chemistry is the foundation of many disciplines in food and agricultural sciences, which provides an insight into the chemical processes that occur across the agriculture-food-nutrition continuum. Students often experience challenges within majors that require chemistry knowledge due to its abstract nature. Their struggle stems from a lack of effective learning strategies and supports extending beyond conventional methods. Moreover, there is a scarcity of opportunities to apply chemistry knowledge to solve contextualized problems in food and agricultural sciences. To address these challenges, the project aims to develop and implement a program (a) using an asset-based framework to foster their science identity, (b) incorporating evidence-based science pedagogy to promote student engagement and motivation, (c) equipping students with reactive molecular dynamic simulations skills to enhance their understanding of chemical reactions, and (d) emphasizing the importance of practical application skills to enable students to solve contextualized problems in the food and agricultural science field.The project will target students from three Hispanic-Serving Institutions in California, California State University, Los Angeles, San Diego State University, and California State University, Bakersfield, to promote equitable learning opportunities for underrepresented minorities. Through three implementations and iterative refinements, a total of 72 undergraduate students will receive training to enhance their knowledge of dynamic mechanisms of chemical reactions in food and agricultural science topics. Furthermore, 10 graduate students will be selected to enhance their leadership skills by assisting in mentoring the undergraduate participants. They will also refine their application skills by incorporating reactive molecular dynamic simulation into their own research. By accomplishing the project objectives, the overarching goal of the project is to enhance the quality of food and agricultural science education in Hispanic-Serving Institutes, to better prepare students for success in advanced degree programs and careers within the food and agricultural science sector, and to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and community building.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
0%
Developmental
70%
Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of Project e-FARMS is to enhance the quality of FAS education in HSIs, better prepare students for success in advanced degree programs and FAS workforce, and promote interdisciplinary collaboration and community building.Goal 1: Develop a program consisting of an asset-based framework, pedagogical supports, and RMD simulation training to enhance undergraduate students' understanding of chemical reactions and their ability to solve emerging scientific problems in the FAS field. We will accomplish this goal by iteratively developing, testing, and refining the programObjective1-1: The interdisciplinary project team will develop a program consisting of 10 training modules designed to enhance the understanding of chemical reactions, develop problem-solving skills within the context of FAS, and promote motivation toward learning science among undergraduate students in FAS majors. The team will use data collected from the three implementations on program efficiency, quality, feasibility, and student outcomes to refine and finalize the programGoal 2: Demonstrate the promise of the program to improve academic outcomes, motivate students to learn science, and increase retention rates of students in FAS-related majors. To accomplish this goal, we will conduct methodologically rigorous studies to evaluate the impact of the program on student outcomes and track the retention and graduation rates of the participating students.Objective 2-1: Upon completion of a one-semester program that incorporates pedagogical supports, RMD simulation training, and FAS disciplinary topics, 72 undergraduate students who participated in the program will demonstrate significant improvements (p < .05) in (a) their academic outcomes (e.g., understanding of chemical reactions and contextualized problem-solving skills), (b) motivation to learn science, and (c) science identity development when compared to students in the control group.Objective 2-2: After completing the program, undergraduate students who participated in the program will more likely maintain a GPA of 3.0 or greater, remain in FAS-related majors, and/or graduate with a B.S degree in FAS-related majors compared to those who did not participate in the programGoal 3: Enhance leadership skills, RMD simulation skills, and scholarly writing and communication skills of students pursuing M.S. degrees in FAS-related majorsObjective 3-1: 10 graduate students pursuing an M.S. degree in FAS-related majors will demonstrate proficiency in utilizing RMD simulation.Objective 3-2: 10 graduate students who are trained with RMD simulation skills will mentor and assist the learning of undergraduate participants.Objective3-3: 10 graduate students will apply RMD simulation skills to their own research to solve contextualized scientific problems in the FAS fields.
Project Methods
EffortProgram development: The project team will develop a semester-long program, which will consist of 10 sessions encompassing chemical reaction simulations, hands-on activities, and practical problem-solving using RMD skills. Each 75-minute weekly session will be delivered synchronously online and students will be given a software license for RMD simulation that they can install on their personal computers.Program implementation:PD Hwang will oversee the program's implementation, providing pedagogical supports to students, and guidance on instructional delivery to the project team, and co-PDs Hong, Zhao, and Liu will lead synchronous online instructions via hands-on practices, lectures, discussion, and group activities. The leadership team, consisting of graduate students who will be trained prior to the program's implementation, will participate in the entire program and provide individualized learning support to participants who require additional guidance. Participants in the treatment group will attend a 75-minute weekly live session online, where they will be encouraged to share their lived experiences related to weekly topics, which will be leveraged into generating context-based science inquiries by capitalizing their funds of science knowledge and identity. A virtual café will be created to provide a space for students to ask questions and share their learning experiences in STEM disciplines. Tomake student interactions more effective, we will recruit and train students to serve as TAs in the virtual café. Participants can ask TAs questions when running simulations, experiencing technical difficulties, or analyzing their simulation results. The virtual café will foster a FAS community that cultivates students' science identity and professionalism across the three institutions.EvaluationStudent Outcomes. Participants will be assessed before, during, immediately after, and one semester after the program in four main areas: (a) chemical reaction knowledge; (b) FAS context-based problem-solving skills; (c) motivation toward learning science; and (d) science identity. Additionally, participants will be assessed after every weekly session for first two areas (formative measures) to examine their growth trajectory during the treatment period. For (a), the project team will develop 13 formative measures to describe chemical reactions between molecules, which will be equated in scaling for repeated measurement (McMullen C., 2016). For (b), we will follow Bortnik et al. (2021)'s process for constructing context-based assessment in chemistry to develop science problems that will require application of chemical reaction knowledge. For (c), we will use the Science Motivation Questionnaire II (Glynn et al., 2011) to measure students' motivation to learn science, which assesses students' conceptualization, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, career motivation, and grade motivation toward science. For (d), we will use the STEM Professional Identity Overlap (STEM-PIO-1; McDonald et al., 2019), a single-item measure where participants will be asked to select the picture that best describes the current overlap of the image they have of themselves and their image of what a STEM or science professional is.Data Analysis. A two-level hierarchical linear model, where individual (i) is at Level 1 and institution (j) is at Level 2, will be used to analyze student outcomes. We will test and add possible covariates such as entry SAT scores, high school science course-taking sequences and patterns, and pretest scores to the model to reduce confounding effects. We will first evaluate the average treatment effects; then, evaluate moderated effects by student demographic variables (gender, ethnicity/race, undergraduate years, and specific disciplines in FAS). Additionally, we will use a piecewise regression to examine each individual's growth during the treatment period. Moreover, we will conduct a descriptive analysis to examine the participants' retention and graduation rates.Focus Group. One focus group per implementation will be conducted with 4-8students who self-identify as URM. The purpose of the focus group is to gather detailed feedback/information on the overall efficacy, accessibility, and usability of the e-FARMS program. Participants will be asked about changes in their confidence and perceptions in learning FAS before and after the training, differences between the program and conventional lectures they have received, and suggestions for making the program' usability and effectiveness in retaining students from URM in their major and preparing them for FAS-related careers.External Evaluation. The program will be evaluated by two experts, Dr. Ken-inchi Nomura and Dr. Vandeen Campbell. Dr. Nomura will conduct a heuristic evaluation on program design and usability (Nielsen, 1994) using his expertise in RMD simulations to evaluate content quality and alignment with the project components. Dr. Campbell will evaluate instructional delivery, treatment integrity, and fidelity (e.g., whether the program design improves learnability by maintaining internal consistency within the program content and provides flexibility and efficiency to accommodate all students). Evaluation criteria will be adapted from an existing rubric based on the scope and aim of the project. Please see Budget Justification for details.Student Testimonials. Upon completion of the program, we will collect testimonials from participants from URM and female groups via video or written forms. Students will share their own personal stories, experiences, and feelings about the program, which will be used to advertise the program and to aid in the recruitment of participants for future program implementation.Feasibility Evaluation. After analyzing the data from the three program implementations, we will conduct a broad assessment for its practicality and potential for expansion and replication on a large scale. Additionally, we will explore the possibility of adopting the program at the institutional level for long-term curricular transformation. Three College Deans will evaluate the institutional feasibility of the program using different approaches. Drs. S. Hooker (SDSU) and J. Dong (CSUB) will assess its potential for FAS and other natural science programs, while Dr. M. Fryling (CSULA) will evaluate its potential for teacher preparation programs.