Creating a New Generation of STEM Students

STEM INITIATIVES

Creating a New Generation of STEM Students

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by Jeff Simmons

daykis Rodríguez arrived in the United States from Cuba when she was 8 years old, as her mother sought a better life. She recalls the doors of opportunity began to crack open even as a youngster.

Her father never attended school, and her mother pursued vocational studies but never graduated. Idaykis was enrolled in public elementary school in southern Florida, and as she completed each grade, she developed a love of reading, history and art. By high school, opportunity came knocking – via the world of science.

“It wasn’t until high school when I really got involved in science,” Rodríguez said. “I had amazing teachers in chemistry and physics, and I always thought I’d be a chemist first.” But a physics teacher at Félix Verala High School in the Miami-Dade Public Schools system witnessed her potential and offered encouragement.

“He really motivated me to go forward,” she recalled. And she did.

Rodríguez graduated near the top of her high school class in 2003, and by then she knew she would pursue studies – if not a career – in science or engineering and at a nearby university.

“I applied at Florida International University,” she said, describing a desire generated by a college application fair, where she was impressed with Florida International University’s (FIU) offerings in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She successfully applied for a scholarship to study engineering, pondering a future as a mechanical or civil engineer.

Soon after she arrived, though, Rodríguez course-shifted and landed in what is now her home, the field of physics. It was, she said, the result of her entrance into an extremely welcoming department at FIU. “I always chose what I liked, and what I thought I would be good at,” Rodríguez said. “I was good at math and at science, so that was what I pursued.”

Yet, she did struggle, initially unable to balance the demands of work and school. She divided time between studies and work in a lawyer’s office, and her grades suffered; she failed two classes. That early setback prompted her to seek an alternative, and she discovered FIU’s Physics Learning Center.

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The center not only offered a warm space, with a classroom, conference room and lounge. It was a place where physics students could study, receive tutoring, and forge friendships. She also found work there tutoring classmates.

“It became a very nice area for students to hang out and communicate and share their time together, and it became very beneficial,” said Rodríguez, who is now 28 years old.

“FIU is excellent. It is very rigorous, but at the same time, if you get acquainted with the right people and right friends, it is very supportive. Not only are the professionals interested in helping you succeed, but also everybody helps each other. You could come in and just ask a question, and all of a sudden you have a new friend.”

Rodríguez’s experience illustrates the commitment that FIU has made to develop a healthy, rigorous array of options for students wishing to pursue STEM-related studies. In February 2012, President Obama’s Council of Advisors of Science and Technology offered five recommendations to boost the number of STEM graduates by one million in 10 years. FIU’s experience has well positioned it to contribute to that endeavor.

FIU has long focused on areas highlighted in the president’s report, offering educational experiences that encourage students to discover, educate and innovate. The school has garnered $20 million in active STEM education-related grants, faculty members adhere to an active-learning approach, and student mentorships pave the way for them to conduct lifealtering research.

Hispanics represent a significant portion of FIU’s current 50,000-student enrollment, which is expected to swell to 62,000 by 2020. FIU repeatedly has been ranked No. 1 in the country for awarding bachelor’s and master’s degrees to Hispanics – having been featured numerous times in The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine’s annual Top 100 issue.

FIU’s 2011 report noted a fall 2010 headcount of 44,010 students, 60 percent of which were Hispanic; 60 percent, full-time; and 75 percent, undergraduates.

In 2010-11, FIU awarded 1,151 STEM bachelor’s degrees, of which 81 percent were awarded to minority students. At the graduate level, 45 per-

cent of the 471 STEM degrees were awarded to minority students. And in 2010-11, a quarter of FIU’s undergraduate students and 16 percent of the graduate students were pursuing a STEM-related degree.

Overall, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanics has steadily escalated, rising from 3,169 in 2006-07 to 4,156 in 2010-11; likewise, the percentage of all bachelor’s degrees conferred on Hispanics rose from 64 percent to 68 percent during that time.

FIU counts 7,500 undergraduate students majoring in STEM fields and is estimated to impact more than 20,000 high school students by educating STEM teachers on the peer-led, active-learning model.

Meeting the president’s goal will require elevating the number of Hispanics who pursue and receive STEM degrees, and FIU maintains that a network of research-driven STEM centers focused on underrepresented minorities must be in place.

“We take very seriously the opportunities that are available in Florida and nationally in STEM, so we spend an awful lot of time in the development of pipeline programs with the Miami-Dade public schools,” said Mark B. Rosenberg, FIU’s president. “That is critical as a means to ensure that students have the ability to address the rigor of STEM once they get to the university.”

FIU historically has invested in strengthened STEM offerings; as far back as two decades ago, the university developed ties between its engineering department and a nearby high school. “We’ve always taken our responsibility seriously, and we don’t wait until students just get to FIU,” Rosenberg said.

In fact, FIU launched collaboration with the Miami-Dade system – the nation’s fourth largest school district – when Rosenberg became president in 2009. That has involved quarterly meetings with 15 task force groups to address issues such as student achievement and matriculation.

FIU’s STEM Transformation Institute is leading the region’s commitment to 100Kin10 movement, which aims to train 100,000 STEM teachers over the next decade. Efforts also include training 200 local public school teachers in STEM fields at 26 low-performing schools within the next five years.

Last year, FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing hosted a threeday workshop to develop concrete steps to broaden participation among underrepresented minorities in engineering. That culminated in the goal of raising the percentage of underrepresented minorities graduating with engineering degrees from its current 12.4 percent to 20 percent by 2025.

“We view the STEM opportunity as something that does not just begin when the students get here, but we attempt to develop those pathways early on, making sure that students understand that being in science, or engineering or math is for them,” Rosenberg said.

A perfect example, he said, is Rodríguez, who Rosenberg called a “good role model because she really didn’t intend to study physics or be in physics education.”

“She doesn’t come out of a privileged background; she comes out of a background very similar to the backgrounds of many of our students: first generation in our country, experiencing hardship, and with limited opportunities to get a higher education except for the local university,” Rosenberg said. “She speaks to the opportunities in STEM that are available for people who show they can master the field.”

After experiencing the welcoming atmosphere in the Physics Learning Center, Rodríguez dove into the field, particularly high-energy physics. At one point, she spent a summer semester at a nuclear lab in Virginia per-

“FIU is excellent. It is very

rigorous, but at the same time, if you get acquainted with the right people and right friends, it is very supportive.”

Idaykis Rodríguez, FIU graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in physics forming an independent study in a condensed matter lab.

While studying and working at the center, she heard about the university’s Physics Education Research Group (PERG), which focuses on the development, implementation and study of research-based reform for physics and physics education programs. And she embraced PERG’s

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In 2010-11, FIU awarded 1,151 STEM bachelor’s degrees, of which 81 percent were awarded to minority students.

At the graduate level, 45 percent of the 471 STEM degrees were awarded to minority students. approach to nontraditional classroom instruction. About 30 students learned in a studio-based format, which involved frequent hands-on activities, and barely any lectures.

“Students were able to experiment with physics, and learn through these experiences,” she said.

She attended several PERG meetings and volunteered, assisting PERG with data collection. Soon, though, she found herself on the other side of the classroom, helping students to better learn physics.

“That kind of work is really meaningful, and I could see the fruits of our work right away, and students learning and understanding,” Rodríguez said. “I felt like being a computer processor or processing data still was interesting, but the real drive was the satisfaction I got from seeing students understand different ways or methods of getting a point across.

Helping students was more of my calling, something I really wanted to do.”

Dr. Laird Kramer, associate professor of physics, first joined FIU’s faculty as a nuclear experimentalist in 1996 but in recent years turned to building a transformational education outreach model. Since 2003, he has led FIU’s Center for High Energy Physics Research and Education Outreach’s education outreach component.

“We care about supporting and getting more physicists into the work force and strongly advocate for those students,” Kramer said, who has sought to counter the impression of limited career options for those who major in physics. “There are lots of options for physics out there.”

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The Physics Learning Center that drew in Rodríguez has served as a pivotal mechanism to entice students, and awaken their love of physics. He pointed to her arrival not long after the center opened, saying she helped to turn expectations of the community into a reality.

“We try to be very student-centric, and students came to us and asked if they could have access at night, and we said ‘sure,’” he said. “It was hard for them to find a spot to settle down between classes. We realized this was key to those who wanted to become physics majors. This is a big draw; they see a strong support structure and that includes the courses, the space, advising, mentoring and life counseling.”

The center has transformed the undergraduate physics experience at FIU, empowering students and establishing a high school-university research and learning community.

Rodríguez graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics. Her experience with FIU and, in particular, PERG led her to target only one school for the next chapter in her academic studies: FIU. As a graduate student, she is paying it forward and using her STEM education along with her passion for physics and teaching to help minority students like herself to reach their goals. During her first year of graduate school, she served as a teaching assistant in a lab. There she taught modeling classes with more hands-on experiments versus traditional lectures.

Recently, a nearby school faced an urgent need for a physics teacher,

and she stepped into that role to instruct five at-risk high school students who commuted to FIU. “I made it more fun for them by making it more interactive,” she said. “It was my first experience. I was scared of being in charge of somebody. But being open with them about who I was, what I wanted from them, and how I was going to do things really opened up lines of communication.”

Geraldine Cochrane, 29, has known Rodríguez for several years and began attending FIU in fall 2010. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in physics as well, with a specialty in secondary school teaching.

“I was especially fond of physics because I could make direct application of what I was learning through experiments and laboratory activities,” she said. “My career goal is to continue in the fields of science, physics and astronomy education by teaching, conducting research and engaging in outreach.”

Like Rodríguez, she acknowledged the national disparity in Hispanics involved in STEM fields, even though many of her classes at FIU have been incredibly diverse.

“The push for more students of color is an issue dear to my heart,” she said. “There are, unfortunately, still disparities in the areas of STEM when it comes to minorities resulting in their being underrepresented in the field. STEM is an area of national need, and minorities are a major resource that should be utilized.”

Cochrane added, “It is my belief that diverse perspectives in problemsolving, innovations and inventions result in better products than those of homogenous groups due to the increased variety of background, experiences and ideas brought to the effort.”

She first met Rodríguez at a Physics Education Research Conference in Canada and found her research of interest. Rodríguez, she said, is an

example of progress and inspiration.

“I think Ida’s presence alone is inspiring to both females and minority students, both of which are still underrepresented in the field of physics,” Cochrane said. “Ida’s focus on identity helps her to remain cognizant of the representation of who can and should be physicists. She expresses this to her colleagues, students and acquaintances. I think this is encouraging to students of color because Ida believes that people of all sorts can and should pursue careers in STEM if they so desire.”

This past summer, Rodríguez’s work earned her a spot at the 62nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, where she met with more than 25 Nobel Prize winners and had the opportunity to discuss her graduate research on physics education and expertise. She is poised to earn a Ph.D. this spring, the result of hard work, perseverance and influence from her family and her teachers.

“Growing up, I lived in a family where it was always that you had to go to school. I always liked school, and getting an education was always my primary purpose. To come here from Cuba and not become a professional was ridiculous. I knew I had to do something with my life,” she said.

Graduation isn’t the end but instead is leading to a new chapter. On the cusp of graduation, she is expecting a baby and applying for jobs. Whatever course she chooses, it will be one that is rooted in a desire to give back.

“Ideally, I see myself where I would do the most good, where I can help future generations of students pursue STEM,” Rodríguez said. “I think many people have blinders on and feel that physics or science is too hard for ‘regular’ people. They don’t see the potential in us. I think that role models become very critical for new generations to understand that it can be done and that anybody can do it, especially somebody like them or me.”

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