Student Success Update
NSM Spring Semester Updates
Happy New Year and welcome back! Below are some undergraduate updates for the Spring 2022 semester.
Syllabus and CV Upload to Courses through the Faculty Center
- Spring 2022 Syllabus Language is provided on the Office of the Provost COVID-19 Updates and Resources page for your review. There have been some updates to the language so please ensure you are using the latest version of the information for your syllabus. This document provides a guide on how to upload a syllabus to your course listing in PeopleSoft. Also, consider using the NSM syllabus template for your course so that a uniform format can be used for all courses.
- Remember to upload your updated CV in your Faculty Center. This guide provides instructions on how to upload your CV.
Spring 2022 Enrollment
- NSM Spring enrollment is down by 3% compared to enrollment at this time in Spring 2021 based on semester credit hours (SCH) for NSM courses.
- The Undergraduate Advising Center and the Office of First Year Programs launched an outreach campaign to students who were eligible to enroll in classes but were not enrolled. Through this campaign, we hope to increase the number of students enrolled in NSM courses.
Success in STEM Course Continues to Offer Support to NSM FTIC Students
The Office of First Year Programs (OFYP) continues to offer the Success in STEM course for NSM freshmen who are on academic warning after their first semester at UH. Fifteen percent (15%) of the students in the NSM FTIC 2021 cohort are on academic warning, meaning they have a GPA below 2.0 after their first semester. This number is higher than what was seen for cohorts prior to the pandemic by 5%. With the interim grade policy in place, there were no students from the NSM FTIC 2020 cohort placed on academic warning after the Fall 2020 semester.
This higher percentage may stem from the fact that many of students spent their last two years of high school learning in a virtual or hybrid environment due to the pandemic. This may have impacted their level of preparedness for transitioning to the college environment.
The students on academic warning were required to attend an Academic Warning seminar on January 13 as a first step for reflection and planning for the Spring semester. The students are also required to enroll in the Success in STEM course or complete a self-paced version of the course, which requires regular check-ins with their academic advisor and the OFYP staff. The accounts for all students on academic warning were flagged in the Navigate system as NSM Alert students so that NSM advisors can identify, advise, and monitor their progress and help them get back on track for timely completion of their degree.
NSM Student Leadership Program Calendar of Events
The NSM Student Leadership Team held their annual Spring retreat on January 6. The retreat focused on professional development for positive and authentic leadership for the peer mentors and programming board members. The retreat allowed the student leaders to work together to plan activities for the Spring semester (see list below). Additional events will be scheduled including NSM Talks events and a Research Night where faculty will have the opportunity to showcase their lab research and speak with students interested in their group. More event details will be shared throughout the semester.
- January 25–27
NSM In-It-To-Win-It Student Engagement Game Activity - February 17
NSM Trivia Night - March 24
NSM Cultural Fest - April 28
Capri-Sun and Coloring (Finals Event) - TBD
Research Night - TBD
NSM Talks
Scholarships: Over $380K Awarded by teachHOUSTON for Spring 2022
The teachHOUSTON program, through grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, and other foundations, awarded over $380K in scholarships to 77 students. The scholarships support undergraduate students as well as post-baccalaureate students seeking secondary STEM teacher certification through the teachHOUSTON program.
teachHOUSTON Featured in Daily Cougar
The UH Daily Cougar featured the teachHOUSTON program in an article highlighting their use of culturally responsive teaching practices and their development of a Culturally Responsive Education STEM High School Toolkit for pre- and in-service teachers. The toolkit was developed as part of a collaboration with 100Kin10, an organization for providing America’s classrooms with 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021, and the National Math and Science Initiative. See the full Daily Cougar article