Northwestern University developed the Gateway Science Workshop (GSW) program to reduce the underachievement and increase the retention of students (especially minority students) in introductory science, engineering, and mathematics courses at the University. The program involves more than 600 students in 100 peer-facilitated, problem-focused workshops across 5 disciplines. It targets "gateway" science courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math and Engineering. These are highly demanding, introductory-level courses that students must pass to major in STEM disciplines. This project is establishing an Extended Science Workshop (ESW) program to capitalize on the existing GSW infrastructure and expertise to establish a peer-facilitated workshop program in key second- and third-year courses: the Organic Chemistry 210 and 212 sequences as well as Biochemistry 309 and Cell Biology 315 sequences. These course sequences are required for chemistry and biology majors and typically have large enrollments, with 75 to 300 students per sequence. In the first year of the grant, the project team is launching the full ESW program in Organic Chemistry 210 and piloting the program in Organic Chemistry 212. In subsequent years the team is scheduled to pilot and fully implement the program in all (four) course sequences. At that point the project reaches its full level of activity, supporting 20 workshops in Organic Chemistry and 10 workshops in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and impacting approximately 200 students per year. Throughout the period of the grant, the team is continuing to develop support structures both for peer facilitators who run the individual workshops and for the participating faculty who develop workshop problems and train facilitators in the required disciplinary knowledge. The management plan indicates this project is fully sustainable beyond the period of NSF support. This is to be achieved by fully embedding the ESW program within the institution by the end of the grant period.
Intellectual Merit. While a number of programs exist at U.S. universities to help students in introductory STEM courses succeed, less attention has been paid to critical second-year courses. The program's research and evaluation efforts are advancing understanding of the theory and practice of implementing and institutionalizing small-group, problem-focused, peer-facilitated learning initiatives alongside the traditional science curriculum in higher education STEM disciplines. In particular, the team is examining not just the impact of the ESW program on students' grades and retention, but also examining the subjective experience of students enrolled in the program, an aspect of academic life that may be particularly important for students from underrepresented groups. The project has brought together a highly qualified team of scientists, educators, and administrators who are uniquely positioned to build on their six-year experience in the creation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of workshop-based, learning-centered initiatives for science students.
Broader Impacts. Through its strategies to increase the graduation rate of highly skilled undergraduates in STEM disciplines, the ESW program is providing exceptional opportunities for students to develop more sophisticated approaches to studying, for peer mentors to hone facilitation skills and experience the fulfillment of teaching, and for participating faculty to rethink the way they approach teaching. Moreover, building on the success of GSW with students from underrepresented groups, the ESW program is helping to increase the numbers of minority students succeeding in STEM courses and remaining in the sciences. The program is also building interdepartmental relationships and a network of trained undergraduate leaders who are playing a key role in the program. The ESW team is building on existing knowledge and disseminating new knowledge through continued conference presentations and scholarly papers, in both education- and science-oriented forums.
to the General Public (August 31, 2011) Authors listed alphabetically: Denise Drane Associate Director for Research and Evaluation, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence Gregory Light Director, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence Marina Micari Associate Director for Undergraduate Programming, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and Instructor, Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring Su Swarat Senior Research Associate, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence; Director of the Science Research Workshop Program Sara Woods Program Coordinator, Science Workshop Programs We describe in this report two innovative educational programs developed and implemented at Northwestern University in the past six years – the Extended Science Workshop (ESW) program and the Science Research Workshop (SRW) program. Both programs are built upon design principles that engage undergraduate students in collaborative small-group work and facilitate peer-to-peer mentoring and teaching. Evaluation results suggested positive impact of both programs on students’ learning, retention and motivation. The Extended Science Workshop (ESW) program is a peer-facilitated, problem-based program designed to help students succeed the Organic Chemistry course sequence, one of the most challenging courses for science students, particularly those majoring in Biology and Chemistry. Students who voluntarily participate in this extracurricular program meet 2 hours per week in small groups of 5-7. Each group is led by a facilitator, an advanced peer who excelled in the course previously. Students work collaboratively on advanced conceptual problems developed by the course instructors. This structure is designed to take advantage of the different strengths and perspectives that different group members bring, and to help students master the materials by learning from each other. Therefore, the facilitators do not teach the students; rather, they facilitate interactions among group members, and guide the group through a collaborative problem-solving process. The success of ESW is made evident by the popularity of the program among Organic Chemistry students. Approximately 30-40% of the students enroll in ESW every quarter. In addition, ESW participants have been shown to receive higher final course grades than their non-participant counterparts, and have a higher likelihood of successfully completing the 3-quarter course sequence. As better grades and completion of the entire sequence are likely to encourage students to stay in biology or chemistry, it is reasonable to suggest that ESW contributes positively to the number of biology and chemistry majors produced by Northwestern University. The Science Research Workshop Program (SRW) is designed to provide students with authentic research experiences early on in their undergraduate career, in order to encourage them to stay in the sciences and to pursue a science research-related career. SRW is an extracurricular academic program open to students who seek research experience in the field of biology, chemistry and materials science. In this quarter-long program, students meet once a week for 1.5 hours. The first part of the meeting is led by faculty speakers who share experiences relevant to various aspects of science research, and the second part is organized as small-group workshops in which the students develop an independent research study and write a research proposal. The small groups are led by undergraduate facilitators, who are actively engaged in research and have won research grants. Similar to ESW, the SRW facilitators encourage students in their groups to perfect their proposals by providing constructive feedback to each other. Perhaps the most obvious indicator of success for SRW is the number of participants who won research grants within and outside Northwestern University. For example, SRW participants won Northwestern University’s Undergraduate Research Grant at a higher rate than the university average. A substantial number of our students also received research funding through other sources including NSF’s REU grants, and research grants from various colleges and departments at Northwestern. Research funding aside, SRW has also been shown to increase students’ beliefs of their research knowledge and skills, to enhance their interest in science and research, to provide them with an authentic taste of the science research career, and to facilitate their entry into the science community. We believe that there has been sufficient evidence to suggest the success of the ESW and the SRW program. We have disseminated the program models through conference presentations and publications to communities outside Northwestern University. More importantly, the positive impacts of ESW and SRW enabled us to secure institutional and departmental support within Northwestern to sustain the programs beyond the NSF funding period. It is our intention to continue to improve and expand both programs in order to support more students in their pursuit of a science and research career.
