Texas Border Business
Laredo College is thrilled to announce that our institution is receiving a grant to teach quantitative reasoning skills to undergraduate Hispanic STEM students by researching real-life COVID-19 data. A total of $199,978 has been awarded to conduct the necessary research through June 30, 2021.
LC President Ricardo J. Solis said, “We are grateful to have this unique opportunity to make a difference and positively contribute to the current pandemic in our country. It is important for LC to find support and promote exceptional activities and projects that strengthen STEM education.”
For several months, the office of the Vice President for Resource Developmenthad been working diligently to obtain a grant that was going to change the course of research experience for Laredo College Hispanic- Serving Institution (HSI) Program students. This program assists students to expand, enhance and improve the academic offerings, program quality and institutional stability of Hispanic students at LC.
On June 12, LC along with Congressman Henry Cuellar announced at a press conference that our institution was the recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID Award. This RAPID award is made by the HSI Program in the Division of Human Resource Development, Directorate of Education and Human Resources.
NSF is an independent federal agency created in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science and is a vital base of support to do basic research as students gain knowledge that will transforms the future. NSF is the only federal agency whose mission includes support for all fields of fundamental science and engineering. They are tasked with keeping the United States at the leading edge of discovery.
“Students in Laredo must be career-ready to meet the demands of our country’s STEM industries,” said Congressman Cuellar. “This federal investment will help students learn qualitative skills by gathering and analyzing COVID-19 pandemic data from our community. As a senior Appropriator, I will continue to fund educational programs that will create a new generation of innovators that will solve the problems of today and the future. I want to thank Laredo College President Ricardo Solis and the rest of his staff for their dedication to expanding educational opportunities for our students.”
The undergraduate research experience will be designed and implemented around data analysis utilizing existing COVID-19 data resources. The project seeks to investigate the effectiveness of using a fully-virtual undergraduate research format to enhance quantitative reasoning, literacy, fluency and numeracy while promoting student persistence during the pandemic.
The students’ work will also include collecting and monitoring data on the rate of infection of the COVID-19 in high-poverty rural communities in Laredo thus increasing the diversity of the data available to scientists. By gathering data from the COVID-19 spread in Laredo, this project data can be an opportunity to study, learn and prepare for future situations. Students will increase their quantitative reasoning knowledge base, skills set and confidence level by gathering, interpreting, analyzing data and drawing conclusions based on evidence.
NSF will maintain close contact with our institution researchers to identify ever-moving horizons of inquiry and monitoring which areas are most likely to result in spectacular progress. Through this agency, our college will ensure that this important research is fully integrated with education so that today’s revolutionary work will also be training tomorrow’s top scientists and engineers.
