Equipment: Improving Access to Hands-On Science at Chemeketa Community College

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Educational Instrumentation project at Chemeketa Community College will strengthen undergraduate learning in biology and chemistry laboratory courses. Currently, students at the institution's Woodburn campus must commute up to 90 minutes to complete laboratory courses on the Salem campus. To address this challenge, the institution is renovating existing Woodburn classroom space to offer laboratory sections for at least 6 courses. To equip the new space, this project will secure a broad collection of equipment, including microscopes, instructional models, dissection tools and supplies, and safety equipment. An estimated 600 students will utilize the project-funded equipment each year, saving up to 900 hours of student commuting time. The goals of this project are to enrich the learning and experiences of undergraduate students by providing critical equipment for undergraduate laboratory courses. The project will furthermore reduce the need for students on the Woodburn campus to commute to enroll in key laboratory courses. This removes a significant obstacle to their STEM educational experiences. The project team will assess the impact of the project-funded equipment by tracking the growth of laboratory course enrollment on the Woodburn campus and capturing student use of the equipment. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM teaching and learning at HSIs. 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.