The reenergize Undergraduate Research Program in its second year

Abstract

The initiation of the Re-Energize Undergraduate Research Program was presented in a previous ASEE paper at the 2016 Annual Conference in New Orleans. It started as a network of renewable energy education and research labs fully contained and established at each of the four participating member institutions. The main goal of this collaborative effort is to share effective new green technology content and impart skills to faculty members of this network in order to strengthen their capacities and arm them with additional resources to support their efforts in recruiting and retaining students, and in particular, minorities, in STEM programs offered at their institutions. Our two-year college, San Antonio College (SAC), as part of this network is working on developing and implementing new undergraduate research projects related to green technologies for the entire duration of this partnership. Our college made a commitment to 1) encourage our STEM faculty to attend Re-Energize professional development opportunities to learn and include green energy educational modules into our STEM curriculum; 2) seek space to establish a "start-up green lab" on our campus with Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program pass through funding from the four-year institution so that faculty can conduct classroom demonstrations and our students can perform undergraduate research. This initiative is meant to diversify and continue our undergraduate research program as we include our William R. Sinkin Eco Centro facility into this program. 3) promote additional related outreach and educational Re-Energize efforts to support our students and encourage them to seek successful careers in STEM and green energy-related fields and to 4) participate in on-going evaluation and research efforts related to this program. Numerous reports demonstrate that undergraduate research programs at four-year institutions have been responsible for increasing retention and graduation of their students. Our previous results indicate that two-year institutions can also initiate successful programs with similar results. This paper presents in detail the results of the second-year partnership between the participating institutions to continue developing new directions for summer undergraduate research programs at our community college, offers recommendations, and outlines future plans.