Panhandle Pipeline: Assessing the Impact of Mandatory vs Self-selected Structured Activities on STEM Undergraduate Student Success

社区学院在努力提高STEM劳动力的数量，质量和多样性方面发挥着关键作用。阿马里洛学院的Panhandle Pipeline（P2）项目通过招募、留住和提高获得STEM领域学位的学生的表现，以及促进社区大学学生转学到4年制大学以完成STEM学士学位来支持这一举措。该项目为60多名最近的高中毕业生和成年归国学生提供奖学金，这些学生在STEM项目中表现出学术前景并证明了经济需求。计划的P2学生活动包括实地研究经验，指导，辅导，学术建议和职业咨询。P2项目的目标包括产生证据，证明要求学生参与结构化活动与允许学生自主选择参与的结构化活动的有效性。这个西班牙裔服务机构的研究团队将在五年的项目中实施一项纵向随机对照试验，学生按性别和年龄分层（18-22岁与23岁及以上），并在每个阶层中随机分配到需要参与规定活动的治疗组，或对照组，可以参加相同的活动，但自我指导参与。分析将考虑学生的人口统计学，基线学术特征和学生亚组（高中双学分学生，返回成人学生，目前注册的学生与未申报或一般研究专业）。该项目的成果将通过教育期刊传播，如社区学院研究与实践杂志和社区学院新方向以及与STEM相关的会议，如美国工程教育协会和德克萨斯州少数民族工程师协会。

Community colleges play a critical role in the effort to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of the STEM workforce. Amarillo College's Panhandle Pipeline (P2) project supports this initiative by recruiting, retaining, and improving the performance of students obtaining degrees in STEM fields and by promoting transfer of community college students to 4-year universities to complete baccalaureate degrees in STEM. The project provides scholarships to over sixty recent high school graduates and adult returning students who exhibit academic promise in STEM programs and demonstrate financial need. Planned P2 student activities include field research experiences, mentoring, tutoring, academic advising, and career counseling.The goals of the P2 project include generating evidence of the effectiveness of requiring student participation in structured activities in comparison to allowing students to self-select the structured activities in which to participate. The research team at this Hispanic Serving Institution will implement a longitudinal randomized controlled trial over the five-year project, with students stratified by gender and age (18-22 vs. 23 and over), and randomly assigned within each stratum to either a treatment group requiring participation in a prescribed set of activities, or to a control group, with access to the same activities, but self-directed participation. Analyses will consider student demographic, baseline academic characteristics, and student subgroup (high school dual credit students, returning adult students, and currently enrolled students with undeclared or general studies majors). Results from the project will be disseminated via education journals such as the Community College Journal of Research and Practice and New Directions for Community Colleges and STEM-related conferences such as the American Society of Engineering Education, and the Texas Association of Minority Engineers.