LEARNING COMMUNITIES & COHORT BUILDING

Strategies for building community among students, and the impact of those strategies on STEM retention. Discussion topics include strategies aimed at critical transition points where attrition or low academic performance is known to be high for certain groups (e.g., entering freshman, community college transfers, transition to upper division core, underrepresented engineering students).

Goals• To share successful community building and

cohort development strategies for key transition points and populations

• To discuss obstacles faced and identify solutions to common problems

• To identify other initiatives for development in our STEP programs

EXCEL & COMPASSThe EXCEL program was funded by NSF STEP Type 1A at the level of $1.8M over the period of 2006 to 2012; Institutionalized by UCF - RETENTION

The Convincing Outstanding-Math-Potential Admits to Succeed in STEM (COMPASS) program is funded by NSF STEP Type 1B at the level of $1.8M over the period of 2012 to 2016 – RECRUITMENT

• Program Goal: Increase the number of UCF STEM degree recipients

• Entering freshmen

• Community college transfer

• Underrepresented groups in STEM

• Attrition and low academic performance

Focus Areas

Strategies• Living Learning Community• Math Class Cohorts (College Algebra – Calculus III)• Mentor Network

– GEMS: women’s peer-to-peer mentoring– WISE: women’s industry-to-student mentoring– Graduate Teaching Assistant: class TA and tutor– Faculty: undergraduate research experience

• STEM Seminar Course• Common Advisor• Undergraduate Research Experience• Social Activities• Social Media

SuccessEXCEL– 43% increase in STEM retention of EXCEL participants (overall)– Graduation rates on par or above top SAT math quartile– 42%, 47% and 58% increase in STEM retention of Female,

Hispanic and African American EXCEL participants, respectivelyGEMS – Decrease in gender retention gap (15% to 6%) while increasing

overall retention– 93% agree that GEMS helps create an environment that

facilitates learning– 91% agree GEMS provides opportunities for unique academic

and social experiences

Obstacles

• Consistent Participation

• Support from Advising

• Support from Mathematics Department

• Issues identified in Assessment

UCF STEM Initiatives

EXCELIN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,

ENGINEERING & MATHYES

Young Entrepreneur & Scholar Scholarship Program

S-STEM @ UCF The STATESS project