Creating Opportunities & Access in Science and Technology

诺克斯学院的S-STEM COAST项目（创造科学和技术的机会和途径）增加了有经济需求的学术天才学生的数量，他们完成了STEM学位，并进入了STEM研究生学位课程和职业生涯。该项目针对有经济需要的一年级全日制学生，他们表现出攻读STEM学位的动机和能力，包括第一代学生和来自STEM领域代表性不足群体的学生。该项目以候选人为目标，招募他们参加STEM入门课程，提供补充支持服务，旨在减轻阻碍其他合格学生坚持STEM专业的挫折感。该项目还利用了所有生物、化学和生物化学学生之间的天然亲和力，他们拥有共同的学位要求。智力优点源于强大的学生支持服务和资源网络，这些资源将被重新定位，量身定制和营销，以针对具有强大STEM潜力的有经济需求的学术天才学生。S-STEM项目建立在关于学生持久性和STEM服务提供最佳实践的基准研究的基础上，并根据广泛的机构数据和评估建立了程序性指导方针和结构。学习社区的建设确保COAST候选人通过成功完成STEM课程，宣布STEM专业和坚持毕业来衡量成果。更广泛的影响来自评估计划，该计划通过对项目背景下关键研究的结论进行测试，对项目结果进行统计评估，并建立在对STEM学生成功的已知基础上。传播工作利用电子和网络媒体、演示文稿和出版物，确保STEM教育工作者能够直接获得营销材料、评估标准和工具、原始和分析数据以及评估结果。通过这种方式，该项目有助于STEM教育界了解如何支持和增加学生数量，特别是那些来自服务不足人口的学生，获得STEM学位并进入STEM领域的研究生学位课程和职业生涯。

The Knox College S-STEM COAST program (Creating Opportunities and Access in Science and Technology) increases the number of academically talented students with financial need who complete STEM degrees and matriculate into STEM graduate degree programs and careers. This project targets first-year, full-time students with financial need who have demonstrated motivation and aptitude to pursue STEM degrees, including first-generation students and students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. This project targets candidates and recruits them into introductory STEM coursework, providing complementary support services designed to mitigate the frustrations that can deter otherwise qualified students from persisting in STEM majors. The project also leverages a natural affinity between all Biology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry students who share common degree requirements. The Intellectual Merit derives from a strong network of support services and resources for students that will be repurposed, tailored, and marketed to target academically talented students with financial need who have strong STEM potential. This S-STEM project builds on benchmark studies about student persistence and best practices in STEM service provision and establishes programmatic guidelines and structures based on extensive institutional data and assessment. The construction of a learning community ensures that COAST Candidate outcomes improve as measured by successful completion of STEM coursework, declared STEM majors, and persistence to graduation.The Broader Impacts derive from the evaluation plan that statistically assesses program outcomes and builds upon what is known about STEM student success by testing the conclusions of key studies within the context of this project. Dissemination efforts utilize electronic and web-based media, presentations and publications to ensure that STEM educators have direct access to marketing materials, assessment rubrics and tools, raw and analyzed data, and evaluation results. In this way, this project contributes to the understanding among the STEM education community of how to support and increase the number of students, particularly those from underserved populations, earning STEM degrees and matriculating into graduate degree programs and careers in STEM fields.