Bridging the Valley: A STEP Ahead for STEM Majors

这个项目是由谢南多厄山谷四所高等教育机构组成的联合体：蓝岭社区学院、桥水学院、东门诺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，每家院校的部分或全部STEM项目的入学人数都在下降。该项目旨在扭转这些趋势，并增加STEM专业的多样性。为提高STEM专业的入学率和毕业率，我们正推行六项活动：i)举办暑期桥梁计划，帮助新生培养数学技能，向参与院校的学生介绍一系列可能的STEM专业，并向他们介绍如何用现实问题解决STEM基础问题；ii)在校园内建立一套独特的协调学习社区，重点关注STEM主题；iii)努力建立谢南多厄山谷合作伙伴关系，谢南多厄山谷政府，企业和教育机构的财团，以提供基于stem的实习和就业机会；iv)四个校区联合举办一系列STEM教师发展活动，以提高教师对留住STEM专业学生的关键问题的认识，并培养使用有效教学法的技能；v)在项目结束后，向K-12教师和辅导员开展外展活动，以帮助建立和维持对STEM专业的兴趣和需求；以及vi)针对四所院校各自独特的STEM问题和项目的校园特定活动。SRI国际正在对这些活动进行广泛的形成性和总结性评估。到项目的第五年，这些努力预计将在项目期间每年增加100个额外的STEM学位，并增加220多个STEM学位。在这个项目中获得的知识可以预期导致社区学院和四年制院校之间的协调和衔接更有效的战略。由于两年制和四年制院校之间的衔接协议越来越多，这些知识将越来越有价值。

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.