FAMU Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris is leading a campus initiative that aims to help more students prepare for graduate study in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It is being funded with a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant of $2.5M.The program uses STEM Learning Communities to aid student success. Larry Robinson, FAMU’s former provost and acting CEO, served as the original principal investigator when the project began in 2006. Dean of Arts & Sciences Ralph Turner and Professors Bernadette Kelley and Reginald Perry are co-principal investigators.
Kelley and Perry explained how the learning communities work in a paper abstract for a past educational conference.
“A learning community is a strategy for enrolling cohort groups of students in a common set of classes often organized around a theme, and often linked with residence life experiences,” Kelley and Perry wrote. “The learning community at FAMU is organized around a common course cluster of first-year students who have chosen to pursue a STEM degree.”
Learning communities have been shown to improve retention rates, increase student learning and achievement, increase faculty engagement, and lessen the feelings of isolation some students feel on large campuses. About 200 FAMU STEM students participate in the learning communities each year.