Increasing STEM Graduates in the Physical and Quantitative Sciences

增加物理和定量科学领域的 STEM 毕业生

• 批准号: 1068170
• 负责人: Jill Sible
• 金额: $ 197.24万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1068170&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; STEM; Graduates; Physical; Quantitative

This STEP Type 1B project is increasing the number and diversity of STEM graduates in the College of Science (COS) through retention strategies emphasizing academic success and engagement with the scientific process and community. The project is adopting and building on successful practices employed by the institution's College of Engineering (COE) through its earlier STEP award, DUE-0431646. Features include: 1) a summer bridge program that is providing academic enrichment and advising to prepare incoming freshman and transfer students for the rigors of their degree programs in science and 2) establishment of a freshman residential learning community for physical and quantitative science majors that complements existing engineering and life science learning communities (Hypatia, Galileo, and the Biological Sciences Learning Community). In particular, the PI team is working with engineering colleagues to integrate COS and COE students in both STEP efforts as part of a university-wide agenda to develop interdisciplinary undergraduate training in "scieneering." In addition to building upon the success of COE's STEP award, the COS is enhancing its first-year experience program for transfer students to better serve the physical and quantitative science majors. The program centers on a one-semester, two-credit active-learning seminar and is available to COE transfer students as well. The intellectual merit of this project rests not just in the quality of its strategies and activities, but also in the rigorous assessment of the role its particular implementation of a first-year experience for traditional first-year students and transfer students plays in promoting academic retention and success. The project is exercising broader impacts through its ambitious goal of increasing the number of graduates in the physical and quantitative sciences by twenty-five percent annually. Moreover, vigorous efforts are in place to recruit students who thus far remain underrepresented in STEM fields (e.g. low-income, first-generation, women, and underrepresented minorities), therefore offering an important opportunity to increase the diversity of the population of STEM graduates.

STEP Type 1B项目通过强调学术成功和参与科学过程和社区的保留策略，增加了科学学院（COS）STEM毕业生的数量和多样性。该项目正在通过其早期的STEP奖DUE-0431646采用并建立在该机构工程学院（COE）采用的成功实践基础上。功能包括：1）一个夏桥计划，提供学术充实和建议，为即将入学的新生和转学生准备科学学位课程的严格要求，2）为物理和定量科学专业建立一个新生住宿学习社区，补充现有的工程和生命科学学习社区（Hypatia，伽利略和生物科学学习社区）。特别是，PI团队正在与工程同事合作，将COS和COE学生纳入STEP的工作，作为整个大学议程的一部分，以发展跨学科的本科生“scieneering”培训。“除了建立在COE的STEP奖的成功，COS正在加强其第一年的经验计划，为转学生，以更好地服务于物理和定量科学专业。该计划集中在一个学期，两个学分的积极学习研讨会，并提供给COE转学生以及。该项目的智力价值不仅在于其战略和活动的质量，还在于对其为传统一年级学生和转学生实施的第一年经验在促进学业保留和成功方面所发挥的作用进行严格评估。该项目通过其雄心勃勃的目标，即每年将物理和定量科学的毕业生人数增加25%，从而产生更广泛的影响。此外，正在积极努力招收迄今为止在STEM领域代表性不足的学生（例如低收入，第一代，妇女和代表性不足的少数民族），因此为增加STEM毕业生人口的多样性提供了重要机会。