BOOST:Bridge Opportunities Offered for the Sophomore Transition

BOOST：为大二学生过渡提供桥梁机会

• 批准号: 1505087
• 负责人: Deborah Won
• 金额: $ 24.99万
• 依托单位: California State L A University Auxiliary Services Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1505087&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BOOST; Bridge; Opportunities; Offered; Sophomore

Current education research identifies a critical need for students to develop their "engineering identity." The literature points to solutions that help students explore engineering and encourage peer-to-peer as well as student-to-faculty interaction to promote early assimilation into engineering colleges. The College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) has recently institutionalized a high school-to-freshman Summer Transition to ECST Program (STEP) to support engineering freshmen, a majority of whom are low-income, underrepresented minorities (URMs), and first-generation college students. STEP has successfully led to significantly higher levels of math and English placement, and yet, the ECST sophomores are no exception to the pervasive "sophomore slump" experienced nationwide. Unlike typical bridge programs, the Bridge Opportunities Offered for Sophomore Transition (BOOST) project will target engineering students transitioning between the freshman and sophomore years. BOOST will fit nicely between an existing college-funded freshman-to-sophomore bridge program, a first-year experience that will be created in ECST with new funding from the Chancellor's Office to reduce the achievement gap, and a grass-roots revamp of the sophomore engineering core. The literature identifies the large population of URM students that leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors as one of the main sources of potential STEM professionals. BOOST has the potential to create an innovative model for ensuring the success of rising URM sophomores in engineering. In addition to giving students a foretaste of engineering, BOOST will also provide community engagement, as well as career development opportunities, which are expected to motivate ECST's largely URM, first-generation engineering student body to persist and excel in engineering while ultimately positively impacting the nation's ability to increase and diversify its STEM workforce.The investigators will explore the impact of design-focused, urban-centered service learning on the development of engineering identity and ultimately on the retention of engineering students. The project will include the development of a research tool that will help to identify at-risk students early, so as to better target students who can most benefit from the additional support from BOOST. The investigators will address not only whether but also how BOOST will help their students to succeed in engineering as well as whether or not they are targeting the students who will benefit most from the additional support of BOOST. To do so, they will develop an adaptive artificial neural network (ANN) that will model the relationships among various student factors and the probability of student success. The research will address the questions: what aspects of the program (service learning, urban setting, practical design experience, exposure to engineering concepts are needed in subsequent courses, what is the optimal program timing between freshman and sophomore year, what collaborations (as members of a team) are most beneficial to students' development of engineering identity and ultimately, to their success? Assessment and evaluation will be conducted using mixed methods, including, but not limited to, cognitive assessments such as course examinations and concept inventories, and affective assessments such as questions on the College Pedagogical Practice Inventory. The anticipated local outcome will be a 10% to 15% improvement in second year retention and six year graduation rates in ECST. The project will potentially lead to a model for improving student success at other similar institutions.

当前的教育研究表明，学生迫切需要培养他们的“工程师身份”。文献指出了帮助学生探索工程的解决方案，并鼓励点对点以及学生与教师的互动，以促进工程学院的早期同化。加州州立大学洛杉矶分校（CSULA）的工程、计算机科学与技术学院（ECST）最近将一项从高中到大一新生的暑期过渡计划（STEP）制度化，以支持工程专业的大一新生，其中大多数是低收入、未被充分代表的少数民族（urm）和第一代大学生。STEP成功地提高了数学和英语的水平，然而，ECST的二年级学生也不例外地经历了全国范围内普遍的“二年级衰退”。与典型的桥梁项目不同，为大二过渡提供的桥梁机会（BOOST）项目将针对在大一和大二之间过渡的工程专业学生。BOOST将很好地配合现有的大学资助的新生到二年级的桥梁项目，将在ECST利用校长办公室的新资金创造一年级的经验，以减少成就差距，以及对二年级工程核心的基层改造。文献表明，大量离开科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的URM学生是潜在STEM专业人员的主要来源之一。BOOST有潜力创造一种创新模式，以确保URM工程专业二年级学生的成功。除了让学生对工程有所了解，BOOST还将提供社区参与和职业发展机会，这有望激励ECST的主要是URM的第一代工程专业学生坚持并在工程方面表现出色，最终对国家增加和多样化其STEM劳动力的能力产生积极影响。研究人员将探讨以设计为中心、以城市为中心的服务学习对工程身份发展的影响，并最终对工程学生的保留产生影响。该项目将包括开发一种研究工具，帮助及早识别有风险的学生，从而更好地针对那些最能从BOOST的额外支持中受益的学生。研究人员不仅会讨论BOOST是否会帮助他们的学生在工程方面取得成功，还会讨论BOOST如何帮助他们的学生，以及他们是否针对那些将从BOOST的额外支持中受益最多的学生。为此，他们将开发一个自适应人工神经网络（ANN）来模拟各种学生因素与学生成功概率之间的关系。该研究将解决以下问题：课程的哪些方面（服务学习、城市环境、实际设计经验、接触工程概念）在后续课程中需要，大一和大二之间的最佳课程时间是什么，什么样的合作（作为团队成员）对学生的工程身份发展和最终的成功最有益？评估和评价将采用混合方法进行，包括但不限于认知评估，如课程考试和概念清单，以及情感评估，如大学教学实践清单上的问题。预计当地的结果将是在ECST的第二年留校率和六年毕业率提高10%到15%。该项目可能会成为其他类似机构提高学生成功程度的典范。