Undergraduate institutions serve as stepping stones to students' careers. Teaching and learning in science classrooms require quality and integrated teaching-research learning experiences that prepare students to advance their careers. Using publicly available data sets and open-access data analyses software can be impactful for engaging students…

The Joint Educational Project's (JEP) STEM Education Programs at the University of Southern California (USC) present an elementary-level curriculum centered on the science of stem cells in partnership with Dr. Adam MacLean, an Assistant Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC for the broader impacts of a National Science…

This STEM research project asks middle school or high school students to work towards creating ecologically friendly packaging. Packaging that can be composted instead of thrown away and collected in landfills and oceans like plastics. This inquiry uses nanocellulose and focuses on water permeability. The fibers of nanocellulose can be dried to…

Rural students often face challenges in receiving high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without meaningful STEM educational opportunities, rural students might not develop the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a technology-driven workforce. The Learning by Making program (LbyM), an innovative…

The Notation in Science Communication (NSC) provides students an opportunity to develop their abilities to effectively communicate technical information to varied audiences using multiple genres and modes. A total of 115 students have earned the NSC as of May 2023. Currently there are just over 100 students in the program, with between 40-50 new…

Including undergraduate research in STEM education is a well-supported and growing high-impact practice that has been made much more scalable through integrating these experiences into the classroom. Here we describe a new biochemistry Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that follows a design-to-data workflow with a strong…

This paper describes the founding principles upon which historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) are built and examines their role in the high-tech economy. It examines and discusses the diversity issues that have led many to posit that HBCUs should embrace computing, informatics, and engineering as focal areas, and partner with Silicon…

A new teaching assistant model was adopted and qualitatively assessed for the general chemistry laboratory, in which both an undergraduate and a graduate teaching assistant provided instruction to students during the lab. Verbal interactions between graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants were recorded, transcribed, and coded using the…

Research conducted by The RP Group's Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) and summarized in "Preparatory Pathways and STEM Calculus Completion: Implications of the AB 1705 Standards" found high rates of attrition along the path to calculus for students pursuing programs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). In this…

A lack of diversity permeates the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Under-representation within STEM fields can stifle innovation and progressive approaches to the future of STEM. Traditional STEM pathways focus on identifying participants who show academic promise in schools. One segment of young people, youth who…

In 2018, in response to the proposed elimination of physics at a predominately Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED) high school, the Northern California/Nevada chapter of the AAPT investigated school demographics and their effect on physics offerings in public high schools in our region. As access was a key issue, the focus was on…

Purpose: Supporting community college transfer students represents a critical strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In addition to being a racially diverse group, students who pursue STEM degrees by way of community college report frequent interests in graduate study and academic careers. Thus, supporting and expanding transfer students'…

This article reports on a multi-method study of a high school course in data science, finding that students who take data science take more mathematics courses than those who do not, there are more under-represented students in data science than is typical for other advanced mathematics courses; that the students who take data science are more…

A compelling body of research suggests that students from racially marginalized and minoritized (RMM) backgrounds are systematically deterred from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields when teachers and scientists create ideologically colorblind STEM learning environments where cultural differences are deemed irrelevant and…

Business leaders in California cannot find the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent they need to stay competitive. Students' lagging performance in K-12 is a critical reason why. The good news is that the nation's most effective STEM education programs can help turn the tide. California students have made some progress in…