Page 3 - Bowie State University: Education Innovation Initiative Handbook
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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Near-Peer Mentors
Freshman students taking general education and introductory major courses get tutoring and additional
support from outstanding upperclassmen students, trained to assist faculty with course instruction inside
and outside of the classroom. Read More (link to near-peer mentors subpage)
Robotics Clinics
Freshman students, working in teams, get hands-on learning opportunities as they develop technology
projects that address real-world problems. Read More (link to robotics subpage)
RESEARCH AND GRADUATE SCHOOL PREPARATION
Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI)
Undergraduate students, selected by a competitive process, engage in faculty-guided research in an
intensive 8- to 10-week program to prepare them to present their work at academic conferences and in
scholarly journals.
Bridges to Doctoral Education in STEM
A group of 25 selected undergraduate students receive mentoring from faculty to conduct interdisciplinary
research to prepare for doctoral study.
FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional Learning Communities
Faculty and staff, who teach and provide extra support to freshmen in the learning communities, form a
community of their own to share and learn innovative practices to enhance student success.
PARTNERSHIPS TO STRENGTHEN STEM PIPELINE
Early Career Exposure
Select students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School engage in hands-on Robotics Clinics, visits to the
BSU campus and other outreach activities to give them a glimpse of college life and STEM careers.
Initiative Goals
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Our EI programming aims to achieve the following goals:
Develop students’ identity by building learning communities, providing undergraduate research
learning opportunities and providing career-related mentoring, including attending conferences on
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
Integrate real world problem-solving and entrepreneurship in the STEM curriculum by adopting
technology into STEM courses and expanding student access to maker spaces to support
multidisciplinary learning
Build a critical mass of faculty as change agents by providing professional development to faculty
on experiential learning and evidence-based teaching