Bridging the Valley: A STEP Ahead for STEM Majors

该项目是由四所谢南多山谷高等教育机构组成的联盟：蓝岭社区学院、布里奇沃特学院、东门诺特大学和詹姆斯·麦迪逊大学。这些机构正在合作开展一系列活动，以吸引和留住不同校区STEM专业的学生。近年来，每一所院校的部分或全部STEM项目的招生人数都在下降。该项目旨在扭转这些趋势，并增加STEM专业的多样性。正在实施六项活动，以增加STEM专业的招生和毕业人数：i)一个暑期桥项目，帮助学生培养他们的数学技能，向参与机构的学生介绍一系列可能的STEM专业，并向他们介绍以STEM为基础的问题解决方案和现实世界中的问题；ii)在校园内建立一套独特的、侧重于STEM主题的协调学习社区；iii)努力在谢南多山谷伙伴关系的基础上再接再厉，这是一个由政府、商业和教育机构组成的联盟，以提供基于STEM的实习和就业机会；Iv)在四个校区之间联合举办一套STEM教师发展活动，以培养教师对留住STEM专业学生的关键问题的认识，并培养使用有效教学方法的技能；v)针对K-12教师和辅导员的外联活动，以帮助在项目结束后培养和维持对STEM专业的兴趣和需求；以及vi)针对校园的活动，将重点放在四所院校各自独特的STEM问题和计划上。SRI，International正在为这些活动提供广泛的形成性和终结性评估。到项目的第5年，这些努力预计将在整个项目期间每年增加100个STEM学位和220多个STEM学位。从这个项目中获得的知识可望导致社区学院和四年制机构之间更有效的协调和衔接战略。由于两年制和四年制院校之间的衔接协议越来越多，这些知识的价值将越来越大。

This project is a consortium of four Shenandoah Valley higher education institutions: Blue Ridge Community College, Bridgewater College, Eastern Mennonite University, and James Madison University. These institutions are collaborating on a series of activities to attract and retain students in STEM majors on the different campuses. In recent years, each institution has experienced declining enrollments in some or all of its STEM programs. This project is designed to reverse these trends and also to increase the diversity of STEM majors. Six activities are being implemented to increase the enrollment and graduation of STEM majors: i) A summer bridge program for entering students to build their mathematics skills, to introduce the range of possible STEM majors available to students at the participating institutions, and to introduce them to STEM-based problem solving with real world problems; ii) A unique set of coordinated learning communities across the campuses that will focus on STEM themes; iii) Efforts to build on the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, a Shenandoah Valley consortium of government, business, and education institutions, in order to offer STEM-based internships and employment opportunities; iv) A set of STEM faculty development activities given jointly between the four campuses to build faculty awareness of key issues in retaining students in STEM majors and build skills in using effective pedagogy; v) Outreach activities to K-12 teachers and counselors to help build and sustain interest and demand for STEM majors after the end of the project; and vi) Campus-specific activities that will focus on unique STEM issues and programs at each of the four institutions. SRI, International is providing extensive formative and summative assessment of these activities. By the 5th year of the project, these efforts are expected to produce an annual increase of 100 additional STEM degrees and more than 220 additional STEM degrees through the duration of the project. Knowledge gained in this project can be expected to lead to more effective strategies for coordination and articulation among community colleges and 4-year institutions. This knowledge will be of growing value due to the growing number of articulation agreements between 2-year and 4-year institutions.