FORCE: Focus on Occupations, Recruiting, Community, and Engagement

FORCE：关注职业、招聘、社区和参与

• 批准号: 0969280
• 负责人: Bethany Bowling
• 金额: $ 99.99万
• 依托单位: NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION (DO NOT USE)
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-15 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0969280&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FORCE; Focus; Occupations; Recruiting; Community

This project is increasing retention rates of freshmen who declare a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) major from less than 30% to over 60% and increasing the number of undergraduates (freshmen and transfer students) who complete a bachelor's degree in STEM at the university from a four-year mean of about 120 to about 180. The main thesis of the project is that a focus on STEM related career opportunities and the pathways to obtain them will be of particular benefit to those students not yet declaring their majors and entering freshmen who declare their intent to major in STEM fields but are at risk of dropping out of that major. The project is engaging faculty, upper classmen and alumni in efforts to interest students in and inform them about STEM careers. Intellectual Merit: Activities include: (1) personal invitations to potential majors to consider a STEM degree path; (2) a learning community targeting pre-calculus students and centered around a new course introducing students to a breadth of STEM degree and career trajectories; (3) the growth of a residential learning community; (4) deliberate and pro-active horizontal and vertical networking of STEM majors (and alumni) through events, a portal to connect STEM majors to STEM jobs on campus, and web-based social networking tools; (5) building a cadre of student ambassadors who represent the STEM disciplines as peer tutors, recruiters, and emissaries at events; and (6) expanding participation in undergraduate research projects. These activities are based on gender equity, STEP and other funded work at the University of Oklahoma investigating effective mechanisms to increase retention and graduation rates in (STEM) majors and a recent on-campus survey to determine why students dropped out of STEM majors or did not consider them as an option as they entered the university. The interdisciplinary within STEM aspect of this project is enabling students who had not previously considered a STEM major and those who become uncertain about their decisions and options to seek an optimal match within STEM instead of (or at least before) leaving STEM altogether. Broader Impact. The interdisciplinary approach underscores the power of cross-department partnership so that other institutions might consider such a unified approach. The literature suggests that the proposed activities will benefit all STEM majors: women in male-dominated fields, men in general, and other marginalized populations such as first-generation students.

该项目将科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的新生保留率从不足30%提高到60%以上，并将在该大学完成STEM学士学位的本科生（新生和转学生）人数从四年平均约120人增加到约180人。该项目的主要论点是，关注与STEM相关的职业机会和获得这些机会的途径，对那些尚未宣布专业的学生和宣布有意主修STEM领域但有可能退出该专业的大一新生特别有益。该项目吸引了教师、高年级学生和校友，努力让学生对STEM职业感兴趣，并向他们介绍STEM职业。智力优势：活动包括：(1)个人邀请潜在专业考虑STEM学位路径；(2)一个以微积分预科学生为目标的学习社区，并以一门新课程为中心，向学生介绍广泛的STEM学位和职业轨迹；(3)住宅学习型社区的发展；(4)通过活动、将STEM专业学生与校园STEM工作联系起来的门户网站以及基于网络的社交网络工具，有意识地、主动地在水平和垂直方向上建立STEM专业学生（和校友）网络；(5)建立一支代表STEM学科的学生大使队伍，作为同行导师、招聘人员和活动使者；(6)扩大大学生科研项目参与。这些活动基于性别平等、STEP和俄克拉何马大学的其他资助工作，研究了提高STEM专业留校率和毕业率的有效机制，以及最近的一项校园调查，以确定学生为什么退出STEM专业，或者在进入大学时没有将其视为一种选择。这个项目在STEM方面的跨学科使那些以前没有考虑过STEM专业的学生和那些对自己的决定和选择不确定的学生能够在STEM中寻求最佳匹配，而不是（或至少在此之前）完全离开STEM。更广泛的影响。跨学科方法强调了跨部门伙伴关系的力量，以便其他机构可能考虑这种统一的方法。文献表明，拟议的活动将使所有STEM专业的学生受益：男性主导领域的女性，一般男性，以及其他边缘化人群，如第一代学生。