Sep 23, 2019

September 2019 Update

UCI Education Research Initiative (ERI) welcomes the campus community back for the 2019-20 academic year. We have a range of exciting programs and opportunities to share and we can’t wait to engage with individuals across UCI and our partners on our shared passion to improve undergraduate education through scholarly endeavors.


For those interested in learning more about the ERI and joining our mailing list, please visit the ERI website.

Join the Education Research Initiative Affiliates

One of our strategic goals for the upcoming year is to build engagement with the community to provide meaningful support for those interested in pursuing collaborations, funding opportunities, or other projects centered on conducting or implementing education research. To this end, we are gathering a cohort of Education Research Initiative Affiliates who will provide input for future programming, attend events and potentially collaborate on projects.
If you are interested in joining the Education Research Initiative Affiliates, please complete the form here.

ERI Seminar Series

We are thrilled to start out this year’s ERI seminar series with Dr. Walter Lee from the department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.
Seminar

Dr. Lee will be leading a seminar from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on October 3 in Engineering Colloquia in Engineering Hall 2430 titled Maximizing Institutional Support for Marginalized Students in STEM.


Workshop

Dr. Lee will conduct a workshop from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on October 4 in Engineering Gateway 3161 titled Beyond Student Retention: Reimagining Student Support in STEM. Dr. Lee’s work focuses on co-curricular support, student success, and inclusivity in STEM learning environments.
If you are interested in attending the seminar, workshop or both, please RSVP here.

ERI Mini Grant Recipient Dr. Rachel Baker awarded $2.5 million NSF Grant

Dr. Rachel Baker received a $2.5 million National Science Foundation Grant for her proposal titled Promoting Cross-Enrollment to Bridge the 2- to 4-Year College Transfer Gap for Underrepresented Students. In this work, Dr. Baker, along with UCI Professor of Teaching Dr. Brian Sato and collaborators at three local community colleges, aims to identify barriers to cross enrollment at UCI. Cross-enrollment programs facilitate enrollment in a college course while a student is still in community college, and Dr. Baker believes that increasing cross-enrollment may lead to improved transfer rates. Through this work, the team will create and assess the impact of interventions designed to increase cross-enrollment.


Dr. Baker’s project was funded by an ERI mini grant this past winter, which enabled her to conduct preliminary work that strengthened her external grant proposal. These mini grants are one way ERI facilitates education research on campus. For those interested, the next call for mini grant proposals will be released this fall.

For more information about the Education Research Initiative, visit educationresearch.uci.edu