Quality Enhancement Plan Proposal

Revised 3_3_10

Enhancing Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning Skills

Increasing Math and Science Literacy for Non-Majors

Submitted by STEM CETL Faculty Community

 

 1. Description: How is the proposed topic transformative in terms of student learning? What student learning outcomes are addressed?

 

Two key general education goals for all NOVA students graduating with an Associate’s degree are Quantitative Reasoning and Scientific Reasoning. In quantitative reasoning, students must understand logical and mathematical analysis within the context of various disciplines and apply graphical, symbolic, and numerical methods to analyze, organize, and interpret data. Students should also demonstrate scientific reasoning by demonstrating the ability to understand and use science as a method of inquiry, generate arguments/data, and use reason to form conclusions. More broadly, these educational goals also ensure that NOVA graduates are literate in math and science. Math and Science literacy can be defined as: the knowledge and understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity (National Academic Press, 1996). Scientific literacy is an important component of NOVA's institutional goal that states that NOVA graduates need to be adequately prepared to enter Northern Virginia’s highly-skilled, technology-based workforce (Strategic Vision 2015).

 

At the College, many students meet the Quantitative Reasoning goal by enrolling in MTH151: Math for Liberal Arts. This course has been especially created for students who are not majoring in math.  The Scientific Reasoning requirement is satisfied by taking two semesters of a 4-credit lab science; BIO101: General Biology I is overwhelmingly the most popular course chosen by non-majors to fulfill part of this requirement. The Achieving the Dream initiative has identified both of these courses as gatekeeper courses with a high enrollment and a low success rate. For example, data has shown that between 30% and 40% of students enrolled in BIO101 do not successfully complete the course with a grade of C or better. Faculty agree that one of the key challenges in increasing student success in BIO101 is that it is not designed for non-science majors but is instead a mixed-majors course (90% non-majors, 10% science majors). This means that it is taught at a high, detailed level in order to academically prepare the majors for upper-level biology courses. This has led to the failure of many non-majors in this course and ultimately is likely to affect overall graduation rates.

 

In contrast to a content-heavy introductory science lab course, institutions such as Harvard University, George Washington University, and Princeton University have developed new interdisciplinary science courses that emphasize problem solving, quantitative reasoning, and scientific methodology. In this model, scientific facts and concepts are introduced in the context of exciting and interdisciplinary questions, such as understanding the possibility of synthetic life, the biology and treatment of AIDS and cancer, and human population genetics (A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12764.html). This has led to an increased student success rate as well as a larger number of freshmen enrolling in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-related majors. This integrated, problem-focused approach to science is also entirely consistent with research on how students learn best and how science is done in a real-world context.

 

In order to promote mathematical and scientific literacy and to increase the success rate of non-STEM majors, the NOVA Faculty Learning Community (FLC) would like to propose that NOVA create, pilot, and implement a lab course designed specifically for non-majors. This course would be designed to be interdisciplinary, not only pulling from different scientific disciplines but also studying science in the context of collecting and analyzing quantitative data. After developing and piloting this course, the interdisciplinary lab course will be linked with MTH 151 in a learning community for non-majors in an effort to increase their overall success in these courses. NAS 101 Natural Science I might be adapted as the appropriate course to include more topics such as nanotechnology, water quality, cancer, cloning, or global climate change.

 

NVCC COLLEGE-WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY  (Last updated October 1997)

NAS 101-102 - NATURAL SCIENCE I-II (4 CR.) (4 CR.)

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Presents a multidisciplinary perspective integrating the main fields of science. Emphasizes the interaction of the scientific disciplines. (Primarily for non-science majors.) Lecture 3 hours per week. Recitation and laboratory 3 hours per week. Total 6 hours per week.

GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE

The course is intended for non-science majors who desire or need a lab science course. Topics will come from the sciences of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics. Emphasis will be placed upon relating the concepts of science to the real world of one's environment. One-day field trips will be a part of this course.

ENTRY LEVEL COMPETENCIES

Students should be able to use arithmetic in problem solving and be able to read and express themselves both orally and in writing.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

A.    Provide the student with a better understanding of the laws of nature as they relate to the fields of astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics.

B.     Gain an understanding of the interrelated nature of physical, chemical and biological processes

C.     Provide elementary and secondary school teachers an opportunity to improve their understanding of the natural sciences

D.    Serve as an introductory course for the more advanced cours in astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics

E.     Gain a better understanding of the evolution of scientific thinking and methods of experimentation that have put science where it is today.

 

 We believe that developing a collaborative series of student activities in science and math will enhance student learning by breaking down traditional disciplinary barriers, emphasizing critical thinking, and encouraging students to seek relevant connections in their own lives.  In turn, increased connection may lead to increased student engagement, increased retention, and greater student success. It may also be possible that by having non-majors enrolled in this course, BIO 101 can be more appropriately geared toward students entering STEM or pre-health fields, thus enhancing their success as well. Lastly, an exciting and rewarding experience in a science course may lead to some non-majors deciding to enroll in a STEM major.

 

One of the long-term outcomes of this work will be the enhanced coordination of the College’s STEM education efforts.  The effort to enhance math and science literacy in the non-STEM majors (the vast majority of our student population) will require collaborations among the STEM faculty, the Achieving the Dream initiative, the Pathways to the Baccalaureate program, the First Year Experience, and the math and science learning centers. Because STEM and biosciences are key foci in the Strategic Vision 2015, this collaboration will lay the foundation for a college-wide STEM initiative that will include a) working to enhance the retention and graduation of our STEM students, b) partnering with transfer institutions to build bridge programs, c) recruiting under-represented groups into STEM majors, and d) working with local high schools to develop teacher training in STEM fields and/or a certificate in STEM education.

 

2.  Congruence with Mission and Strategic Vision 2015. 

 

NOVA’s mission is centered on increasing student access to higher education, and the retention and graduation of NOVA students. Because of its location in a vibrant, economically diverse region where highly-skilled, technology-savvy workers are in high demand, these important institutional goals must include enhancing and ensuring scientific and math literacy.  This initiative would also dovetail well with another part of NOVA’s strategic plan of enhancing instructional programs/courses in STEM disciplines and the biosciences, especially if more students enroll in STEM majors as a result of their positive experiences in the learning community. In addition, by faculty developing collaborations with those outside of their discipline, best teaching practices can be shared and a collegial and collaborative teaching and learning community can be fostered.  The strengthening of an educational community, particularly across STEM disciplines, could motivate the students to see connections they might not otherwise have seen, and thus encourage student engagement and retention.

 

3. Method: How do you envision NOVA carrying out your proposal? 

 

We propose this initiative to take place in multiple steps.

 

Phase I: Course Development

·         An interdisciplinary lab course around a “hot topic” such as nanotechnology, water quality, cancer, cloning, or global climate change.

·         It may be possible that such as course could be offered as NAS 101: Natural Science I. This purpose of this course is to present a multidisciplinary perspective integrating the main fields of science by emphasizing the interaction of the scientific disciplines; the course was specifically designed for non-majors. It is only offered currently at the Manassas Campus in the Fall semester; NOVA appears to be the only college in the VCCS offering this course. The clear advantage of using this course is that it already exists and already is transferable to institutions such as GMU.

·         Several faculty members from different science disciplines and math will be involved in the development/re-design of this interdisciplinary course. They will choose a topic, evaluate textbooks, and develop the labs that will be included in the course. Special emphasis will be given toward incorporating investigative labs that involve the design of experiments and the collection and analysis of data. This team will also consult with several institutions that have recently developed such a course, including George Washington University with whom we collaborated with on a recent science education grant proposal.

 

Phase II: Piloting the course

·         One or two sections of this course will be piloted.

·         The course will be co-taught by faculty from different STEM disciplines who worked on the course development.

 

 Phase III: Inclusion of course into a student learning community.

·         A learning community for non-STEM majors will be developed where students would be co-enrolled in the newly-developed science lab course as well as MTH 151: Mathematics for Liberal Arts. They may also be co-enrolled in an accompanying SDV course.

·         Several teaching faculty will collaborate in order to explore the “hot topic” from both scientific and quantitative perspectives.

·         In order to connect this topic to the real world even further, other disciplines such as ethics, business, etc. will be incorporated to make this experience even more meaningful. These disciplines could be incorporated through a variety of means such as in an accompanying SDV course or a 1-credit seminar course.

·         Students will also be required to seek assistance and/or regular tutoring from the College math centers or the Science Learning Center at Annandale to further foster their success.

 

Phase IV: Expansion to College-wide STEM initiative

·         The learning community will become part of the First Year Experience and/or Pathway to the Baccalaureate, where a significant number of freshmen enroll in these courses as a cohort.

·         Because this effort will require the coordination of several college initiatives (Achieving the Dream, Pathway, STEM FLC), the college will be prepared to broaden their efforts at enhancing the success of STEM majors and developing initiatives to partner with local high schools and transfer institutions. Large institutional grants will be submitted to help fund this effort.

 

 4. Assessment Plan: Address the expected outcomes and how they can be measured:

 

A non-science major (student) who participates in this course will

·         Increase their math and science literacy (an assessment tool will be developed)

·         Increase their critical thinking skills (an assessment tool will be developed)

·         Increase their scientific and quantitative reasoning skills (an assessment tool will be developed)

·         Understand the connection between math or science and their chosen program of study (an assessment tool will be developed) 

 

In addition, NOVA expects the following outcomes:

·         Increase in success rate of students enrolled in interdisciplinary science course over other science courses such as BIO 101 (Collect grade data)

·         Increased success rate in MTH 151 for students enrolled in the learning community (Collect grade data)

·         Increased scientific and quantitative literacy of students in learning community (Analysis of lab reports and/or presentations by learning community students)

·         Higher retention of freshmen enrolled in learning community (Re-enrollment statistics from OIR)

·         Increased student engagement from students in learning community (survey of learning community students)

·         An increase of students enrolling in the A.S. in Science degree (data from OIR)

·         Increased faculty satisfaction of those faculty participating in design or teaching of the new lab course (faculty survey)

·         Development of collaborations with STEM faculty from other institutions (record keeping of conferences/meetings held or attended)

·         Creation of investigative lab modules that could be incorporated into other science courses at NOVA or at other VCCS institutions (product)

·         The development of a successful course model that will highlight NOVA’s commitment to STEM education and student success (export of course model to other VCCS institutions).

·         Improved coordination for institutional STEM enhancement (collaborations between existing STEM FLC, Achieving the Dream, Pathway to the Baccalaureate) – product = grant proposals to fund a college STEM center/initiative

 

5.  Resources: What kind of resources do you anticipate will be needed?

 

Support for STEM FLC. It is critical that STEM FLC collaborate on this effort by supporting the core faculty, helping with the assessments, and expanding the college-wide STEM education initiative.  Financial support will need to be provided to fund lunches for working sessions, the work of CETL to coordinate the FLC, and books/journal subscriptions on college STEM education and best practices. Honorariums may be required to bring in guest speakers to run workshops for STEM faculty.

 

Re-assigned time/summer stipend. Faculty who develop/revise the integrated science lab course will need a large summer stipend or significant re-assigned time. The core group of faculty will need to include faculty from at least three different science disciplines as well as one or two math faculty. Their duties will range from researching and deciding on a topic, collaborating with faculty from other institutions, choosing a textbook, creating a syllabus, choosing and piloting lab exercises. Prior to Phase II, emphasis will need to be placed on revising MTH 151 in order to incorporate discussions and assignments tied to the lab course (and vice versa), requiring that the math faculty involved receive re-assigned time. In Phase IV, money and/or reassigned time will need to be provided to the STEM faculty who are preparing large college-wide STEM education proposals to organizations such as National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, etc.

 

Lab supplies and support from lab staff. The development of new labs will require an investment of lab supplies and equipment as well as support from the lab staff of science departments.

 

Space and staff for science/math learning centers. A critical resource for enhancing the success of non-STEM students in math and science courses is the availability of tutoring from either peers or faculty in a designated Science and/or Math Learning Center. Space will need to be designated at all campuses for such a center; stipends will need to be paid to peer tutors, proctors, or precepts. Because the learning community will be enhanced by required peer tutoring, stipends will be needed to pay STEM students involved in this.

 

Travel to STEM education conferences. The core faculty and faculty who are working on the college-wide STEM initiative will need to become involved in the STEM education community by attending peer conferences and workshops. These might include the Frontier in Education conference, VCCS peer conferences, and the VCCS New Horizons conference.