The Louisiana Freshwater Sponge Project: Developing an Environmental Science Undergraduate Research Pathway from Degree Entry to Workforce and Graduation

This project aims to serve the national interest by addressing the critical need to provide two-year college students with opportunities to participate in early undergraduate research activities on their own campus prior to transferring to a four-year university. The demand for a skilled STEM workforce has only increased over the past decade and is projected to continue in this direction for the foreseeable future. It is therefore essential that the STEM education community continue to develop innovative STEM pathways that increase the number of qualified STEM graduates in the United States. Importantly, two-year colleges are ideally positioned to play a significant role in this effort. In this project, students from nearby minority serving high schools will be recruited to participate in paid research opportunities throughout their two-year college STEM experience. The project will engage two-year college students and faculty in on-campus research activities and internships through the established Louisiana Freshwater Sponge Project. Additionally, industry partnerships will be leveraged to extend training to the workplace. Participants will also gain leadership skills and participate in outreach activities that engage the community in science activities. Ultimately, this project aims to build a transferrable model for engaging two-year college students in research experiences that result in increased retention and success in STEM degrees. The overall goal of this project is to develop, implement, and assess an environmental science research pathway at a two-year college. Three objectives will guide implementation: 1) Create and implement a research pathway to positively impact a diverse STEM student population; 2) Provide career training and scientific literacy engagement activities; and 3) Promote environmental science careers and research through community, campus, and high school outreach activities. While many documented research experiences for two-year college students are limited to summer programs, this project intends to build opportunities that provide continuous research and professional development training throughout the academic year. This will create a platform to increase retention, workforce readiness, and/or transfer to a four-year university. Over the life of the project, twenty-four students will participate in every step of the pathway, while more than 100 additional students will benefit from individual project components including job placement in externships, scientific literacy workshops, and training at the Louisiana University Marine Consortium Research Laboratory. The impact of the activities on both cognitive and affective domains will be assessed in on-going collaboration with an external evaluator. Formative and summative evaluation methods will provide the project team with feedback at regular intervals. The results will be disseminated via publications, presentations, and professional networks. The NSF program description on Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-year Institutions of Higher Education supports projects that advance STEM education initiatives at two-year colleges. The program description promotes innovative and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.