CIENCIA stands in solidarity with the Black Community.
The Collaboration for Inclusive and Engaging Curriculum, Instruction, and Achievement (CIENCIA) is a professional development program to support faculty in the College of Science at Stanislaus State. CIENCIA is funded through a National Science Foundation grant (NSF #1832558) through the Division of Undergraduate Education's Hispanic-Serving Institutions program.
The overall goal of CIENCIA is to improve student retention, graduation, and success in STEM by transforming the culture of STEM teaching and learning at Stanislaus State. Specifically, CIENCIA will focus on enhancing student success in gateway courses, which represent a critical transition for many students, by supporting faculty in improving pedagogy and curriculum in these courses through professional development activities. Initial funding from NSF will support CIENCIA for four-years, from October 2018 through summer 2022.
The CIENCIA program will support the following activities on an annual basis:
- An intensive Summer Institute on inclusive and culturally-relevant teaching
- A one-day Winter Summit for participating faculty to share their practices
- Regular pedagogy workshops during the academic year
- Teaching Square and Curriculum Collaboration faculty learning communities during the academic year
Projected outcomes after four years include:
- Increase the use of active-learning teaching strategies in gateway STEM courses, as measured using standardized classroom observation protocols
- Increase the self-reported use of cooperative learning strategies, tools for formative feedback on student learning, and the promotion of inclusive classroom environments, based on annual faculty surveys
- Decrease the non-pass (DFW) rate in STEM gateway courses, based on institutional records
- Increase the retention rate of declared STEM majors after the first year, based on institutional records
- Increase the sense of belonging among students in STEM majors, based upon student surveys
- Increase the sense of support for effective teaching among COS faculty
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (NSF #1832558). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Updated: August 08, 2023