Engaging and Retaining Low-Income and First-Generation Community College Students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

提高低收入和第一代（LIFG）学生的保留率和成功度，对增加全国STEM毕业生的数量至关重要，这些学生绝大多数被社区大学录取。位于科罗拉多州莱克伍德的红石社区学院与科罗拉多矿业学院合作，将开发新的方法和模式，更好地参与和支持LIFG学生的预工程项目，以提供更深入、更综合的学习体验。这将提高LIFG工程专业学生的成功率、保留率和转学到四年制大学的机会。为红石社区学院的LIFG工程学生和STEM教师提出了四种相互关联的活动。首先，教师研讨会、会议和讨论将用于发展对LIFG学生面临的挑战的共同理解。STEM教师将通过开发新的教学法和有意义的指导来丰富STEM学科的教学和学习，从而成为变革的推动者。其次，将开发非传统的指导策略和STEM 101课程，以解决社会和文化资本如何促进LIFG学生的自我效能感和学业成功。完成STEM 101的学生将参加科罗拉多矿业学院的工程研究活动。这些本科研究经历将利用和加强学生的STEM知识，并建立工程专业知识。第三，学生将有机会体验与他们的生活和社区直接相关的工程项目。这些将基于红石社区学院与科罗拉多矿业学院合作开发的设计与工程应用导论（IDEA）项目，以及科罗拉多矿业学院人道主义工程项目开发的实践工程（EbD）项目。第四，红石社区学院和科罗拉多矿业学院之间的合作将成为建立社区学院-大学合作的典范，为LIFG学生提供更强的学术准备和更容易进入四年制大学的途径，并在工程领域发展职业。该项目将通过前/后设计来调查这些活动如何促进STEM学习和保留，该设计将比较一组指标，这些指标建立了保留的基线衡量标准、看门人课程的成功程度、学习二级STEM课程的STEM学生数量以及这些课程的成功程度。信息也将通过学生和教师调查、清单、问卷、直接观察和综合学习的学术顶点评估来收集。目标是生成这些方法的模型和证据，并为其他社区学院提供有用的材料，这些学院正在努力解决低收入和第一代工程和STEM学生的低入学率、低绩效、低保留率以及缺乏持久性等重要问题。

Improving the retention and success of low-income and first-generation (LIFG) students, overwhelmingly enrolled in community colleges, is critical for increasing the number of STEM graduates nationwide. Red Rocks Community College, Lakewood, Colorado in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines will develop new approaches and models that better engage and support LIFG students in pre-engineering programs in order to provide deeper and more integrated learning experiences. This will lead to improved success, retention, and transfer to four-year institutions for LIFG students in engineering.Four types of interrelated activities are proposed for the LIFG engineering students and STEM faculty at Red Rocks Community College. First, faculty workshops, conferences, and discussions will be used to develop shared understandings of the challenges facing LIFG students. STEM faculty will serve as transforming agents by developing new pedagogies and meaningful mentorships that enrich teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines. Second, nontraditional mentoring strategies and a STEM 101 course will be developed to address how social and cultural capital contribute to self-efficacy and academic success for LIFG students. Students completing STEM 101 will participate in activities leading to authentic research opportunities in engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. These undergraduate research experiences will draw on and reinforce students' STEM knowledge and build expertise in engineering. Third, students will be provided with opportunities for experiential learning on engineering projects directly relevant to their lives and their communities. These will be based on an Introduction to Design and Engineering Applications (IDEA) program already developed by Red Rocks Community College in collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines and the Engineering by Doing (EbD) program developed by the Humanitarian Engineering program at the Colorado School of Mines. Fourth, the partnership between Red Rocks Community College and the Colorado School of Mines will be developed as a model for building community college-university collaborations that provide LIFG students with stronger academic preparation and more accessible pathways for transfer to 4-year institutions and for developing careers in engineering.The project will investigate how these activities contribute to STEM learning and retention through a pre/post design that will compare a set of metrics that establish baseline measures of retention, success in gatekeeper courses, number of STEM students who reach second tier STEM courses, and success in these courses. Information also will be collected through student and faculty surveys, inventories, questionnaires, direct observations, and academic capstone assessments of integrated learning. The goals are to generate models and evidence on these approaches and provide materials that will be useful for other community colleges struggling to address the important issues of low enrollment, poor performance, weak retention, and lack of persistence among low-income and first-generation students in engineering and STEM.