The Implementation project entitled - DREAM STEM-Driving Research, Entrepreneurship, and Academics through Mastering STEM - has the goal of contributing to greater participation of African Americans in the STEM workforce by providing the knowledge and skills for research and innovation. The objectives are: to increase science, technology, enginnering and mathematics (STEM) enrollment, particularly in Chemistry, Environmental, Earth, and Geospatial Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics programs; to increase retention in all STEM degree programs; to improve persistence in and increase the number of graduates from all STEM degree programs; to stimulate faculty research and innovations in STEM teaching and learning; and to enhance scientific education and technical training for STEM students. The objectives will be achieved through three primary project components: 1) Entrepreneurship in science education; 2) Development of students' identity as scientists; and 3) Faculty development through teaching and learning research innovation mini-grants. The project will include a Research, Discovery and Innovation Summer Institute to engage students in the science and engineering research and development portion of the entrepreneurship cycle, which can result in product and process innovations. By means of an extracurricular activity through a highly integrated science-based entrepreneurship program at North Carolina Central University students will earn a certificate in technological entrepreneurship when they graduate with a BS degree in a STEM discipline.
The information and knowledge expected to be obtained from the project will be determinants of whether students who developed entrepreneurial thinking and got entrepreneurial training will enroll in, be retained in, and persist in STEM degree programs at a higher rate; whether activities that facilitate science identity will retain students in STEM degree programs at a higher rate and improve their persistence to a STEM degree; and whether competitive mini-grants for faculty development will lead to innovations in STEM teaching and learning. Knowledge and lessons learned from the project will be disseminated to a wider audience through presentations at national meetings and publications in peer-review journals.
