Focus on Physics

在马里兰州（UMD），学院公园大学的重点物理计划，旨在提高其本科物理专业的保留和学术成就。总统科技顾问理事会（PCAST）的报告称，增加STEM专业的保留率是满足国家对STEM教育专业人员需求的“成本最低、速度最快的政策选择”。UMD物理系专注于物理计划于2012年成功实施。该项目支持24名学者（3个两年期组，每个组8名学生）获得学士学位。 该项目的独特之处在于，该计划旨在探索保留。该项目的关键目的是通过为具有学术价值和经济需求的学生提供学术和经济支持，同时完成物理专业的高级要求，来装备和增强原始程序。 物理项目的重点是建立在当前的新课程和研讨会，旨在保留传入的物理专业。 该项目有望显著提高物理学士学位毕业生的整体保留率。 该方案提供：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（通常在第二年年底），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。“这些保留工作借鉴了研究，并在一定程度上模仿了其他成功的本科STEM保留计划，不再强调补救，而是强调在具有挑战性的问题，早期研究机会，指导和社区建设方面的协作小组工作。此外，物理教育研究小组（PERG）对该计划中实施的方法进行了仔细评估，将深入了解各种保留方法的有效性。 如何保留率变化的响应创新和奖学金的彻底评估的结果，使这个项目成为可能在马里兰州，最大的和最多样化的物理系之一，拥有300多个本科专业的大学，被传播到其他STEM部门在大学和全国其他物理系。

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.