Focus on Physics

马里兰大学帕克分校（University of Maryland, College Park）的“专注于物理”（Focus on Physics）项目旨在提高本科物理专业学生的保留率和学业成就。总统科学技术顾问委员会（PCAST）的报告断言，增加STEM专业学生的保留是满足国家对STEM教育专业人员需求的“成本最低、速度最快的政策选择”。UMD物理系专注于物理项目于2012年成功实施。该项目支持24名学者（3个两年制队列，每个队列8名学生）获得学士学位。该项目的独特之处在于，该项目旨在探索保留率。这个项目的关键目的是通过为学生提供学术和经济支持来装备和加强原来的项目，同时他们在完成物理专业的高级要求时具有学术成绩和经济需求。“关注物理”项目建立在当前的新课程和研讨会的基础上，旨在留住即将到来的物理专业学生。该项目有望显著提高物理学士学位毕业生的总体保留率。该计划提供：强大的学术支持和一个有凝聚力的新生和转学生社区，为成功完成入门课程的学生提供经济支持（通常在第二年结束之前），对成功完成物理学本科学位的明确期望，以及职业规划信息和建议，以帮助学生在完成学位后找到工作或申请研究生院。奖学金允许学生“专注于物理”。这些挽留努力借鉴了研究成果，并部分模仿了其他成功的本科STEM挽留项目，减少了对补救措施的强调，强调了在挑战性问题、早期研究机会、指导和社区建设方面的团队合作。此外，物理教育研究小组（PERG）对该计划实施的方法进行仔细评估，将深入了解各种保留方法的功效。马里兰大学是拥有300多个本科专业的最大和最多样化的物理系之一，该项目对创新和奖学金所带来的保留率变化进行了全面评估，结果将传播到该大学的其他STEM系和全国其他物理系。

The Focus on Physics program at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, aims to increase the retention and academic success of its undergraduate physics majors. The President's Council of Advisors in Science and Technology (PCAST) report asserts that increasing the retention of STEM majors is "the lowest cost, fastest policy option" for meeting the country's need for STEM-educated professionals. The Physics Department at UMD Focus on Physics program was successfully implemented in 2012. This project supports 24 scholars (3 two-year cohorts of 8 students each) in attaining a baccalaureate degree. The project is unique in that the program is designed to explore retention. The critical purpose of this project is to equip and enhance the original program by providing academic and financial support to students with both academic merit and financial need while they are completing upper-level requirements for the physics major. The Focus on Physics project builds on current new courses and seminars aimed at retaining incoming physics majors. The project promises to significantly improve overall retention for students graduating with physics bachelor's degrees. The program provides: strong academic support and a cohesive community of entering freshman and transfer students, financial support for students who have successfully completed the introductory sequence (usually by end of second year), clear expectations of what it takes to successfully complete an undergraduate degree in physics, and career planning information and advice to assist students in finding jobs or applying to graduate school after completing their degrees. Scholarships allow students to "focus on physics."These retention efforts draw on research and are modeled in part on other successful undergraduate STEM retention programs, de-emphasize remediation and emphasize collaborative group work on challenging problems, early research opportunities, mentoring, and community building. In addition, careful evaluation by the Physics Education Research Group (PERG) of the methods implemented in this program will provide insight into the efficacy of various retention methods. The results of a thorough evaluation of how retention rates change in response to the innovations and scholarships made possible by this project at the University of Maryland, one of the largest and most diverse physics departments with over 300 undergraduate majors, are disseminated to other STEM departments at the university and in other physics departments nationwide.