Leveraging Large-Scale Data to Build Skills in Undergraduate Research at a Two-Year College

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate STEM education through training STEM faculty to mentor students working with real-world large data sets. This Track 2 ITYC project will strengthen America’s global competitiveness by empowering faculty to share successful teaching approaches, research results, and mentoring strategies with counterparts at other colleges in Florida and across the country. The project will help educators learn new ways to involve community college students in meaningful research and strengthen their data skills. This, in turn, will develop more two-year college students with the capabilities needed for a data-driven STEM workforce. Overall, these efforts broaden participation in STEM and contribute to the national priority of cultivating a competitive, data-literate workforce that advances U.S. economic growth. The goals of Seminole State College of Florida’s (SSC) Leveraging Large-Scale Data to Build Skills in Undergraduate Research include transforming faculty capacity across multiple STEM departments to lead data research with undergraduate students, cultivating undergraduate student expertise in research and data science for STEM, and strengthening institutional partnerships with external stakeholders. The project will introduce 200 recent high school graduates to research through the SSC Summer Bridge Program and will recruit 100 college students into undergraduate research courses with STEM-focused pathways. Students will work with large-scale datasets to develop projects and presentations that advance the understanding of data science, research design, and problem-solving. To strengthen faculty engagement, the project will establish a high-impact Community of Practice (CoP) for at least 30 faculty members and provide professional development in research ethics, data analysis, and secure data handling. Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate and advance knowledge about the impact of emerging 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.