Funded by the Georgia Board of Regents STEM II Initiative, the goal of the University of West Georgia Institutional STEM Excellence (UWise) program is to create a nurturing environment for students who are interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). UWise provides support to STEM majors through a Summer Bridge program, a freshman Learning Community that schedules UWISE students together in courses during their first year, and opportunities to participate in undergraduate research. UWise supports faculty by providing mini-grants for projects that focus on improving instruction and enhancing the success of students in STEM courses, most particularly those taken by students during their freshman year.
Activity 2 first describes the ways that UWise supports students. The second part of Activity 2 reports one of the more impressive outcomes of the UWise faculty mini-grants that funded pedagogical research to improve student learning.
UWise Student Support
The Summer Bridge Program, a four-week term that allows students to earn 6 semester credit hours toward the core, is the strongest component of the UWise program. During the month of July – prior to their first fall term as entering freshmen – the students (1) get to know the faculty and campus, (2) make lasting friendships with like-minded, STEM focused students, (3) learn to support one another emotionally and academically through self-formed study groups, (4) improve their time management skills, and (5) gain confidence that they can, indeed, be successful as STEM majors. The summer program can be summarized as follows:
- Each year, the UWise summer program enrolls approximately 30 new freshman students who have declared an interest in majoring in a STEM discipline.
- Students live on campus throughout the July term (4 weeks) with room and board paid for through the grant. Students are responsible for paying all tuition and fees.
- Students enroll in two courses that are designed to give them a head-start for their academic STEM career. Those courses are College Algebra (MATH 1111) and an intensive writing course (XIDS 2100); instructors have designed the curriculum for both with an integrated STEM focus.
- Structured tutoring support is provided during evening study halls.
- Week-end excursions supplement and complement content within the math and writing courses.
- Students complete career interest inventories to help them explore the wide array of opportunities for careers that are supported through the various STEM majors.
Student performance data are examined annually as part of the UWISE program evaluation. Evaluators use a consistent research design to compare UWise students with non-UWise students on key performance indicators (Freshman GPA, 1st Year Retention, and final course grades for their freshman year). The UWise cohort is matched with non-UWise students (both groups are STEM majors) to create a ‘treatment group (UWise)’ and equivalent ‘comparison group (non-UWise).’ Matching variables include SAT scores and high school GPA (UWG Freshman Index).
UWise students typically outperform their non-UWise, matched comparison group peers on most of their freshman courses, with the exception of the second term of freshman chemistry, CHEM 1212 (see Appendix Table 37). This course seems to present ongoing challenges for UWise students, although causes remain unclear. Additionally, UWise participants tend to graduate on time (4 or 6 years) at rates higher than their matched peers (see Appendix Table 38).
Faculty Mini-Grant to Improve Student Success in Algebra and Pre-Calculus
One of the most impressive faculty mini-grants was conducted by a faculty member in her fourth year of researching ways to support student success in algebra and pre-calculus. She has used a pre-test at the beginning of her courses to place students into various categories (high risk for failure or withdrawing, moderate risk, low risk), and then has worked with students at high or moderate risk to get help through either supplemental instruction or intervention tutoring. Results indicate students who are at a moderate risk of failure improve significantly with supplemental instruction. Course averages for these students are 81 when attending 10-19 Supplemental Instruction sessions and 91 when attending 20 or more sessions. High-risk students get a greater benefit from intervention tutoring, earning an average course score of 85 when they attend at least 10 intervention tutoring sessions.
