The National Science Foundation awarded Sac State a $1.5 million grant to help teachers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields improve their teaching skills and increase participation by underrepresented groups.
The grant is part of the NSF’s “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program” and is a five-year effort funning from Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2023, according to an article on the university website. Hispanics make up 16 percent of the national workforce, but hold only six percent of STEM jobs.
The project is expected to help about 125 faculty improve teaching strategies and diversity awareness, and hopes to reach 37,000 students in science and math undergraduate studies. Its objective is to send graduates into the workforce skilled in these important disciplines.
Study results are to be published at the end of the five-year program, but student grades are expected to improve after two-years, according to the article.
Sac State professors Lynn Tashiro and Mary McCarthy-Hintz and Di Xu, a UC Irvine professor, were the co-principal investigators on the grant proposal, “Building Capacity: STEM Faculty Professional Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development.”
“Many of our students possess different skills, values, and backgrounds than most STEM faculty when we were students,” said McCarthy-Hintz and Tashiro in a written statement. “This project gives our STEM faculty a venue to explore how to build on these differences to enhance student learning.”
The NSF is funding programs on 31 college and university campuses totaling $45 million. Sac State is among the first to be awarded a grant.
“The faculty learning programs will be designed to meet faculty where they are in their professional career and in their understanding of equitable classroom practices,” according to the article.