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

社区大学在努力提高STEM劳动力的数量、质量和多样性方面发挥着关键作用。Amarillo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，以及促进社区学院学生转到四年制大学完成STEM学士学位，来支持这一举措。该项目为60多名近期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，并证明有经济需求。计划的P2学生活动包括实地调研体验、指导、辅导、学术咨询和职业咨询。P2项目的目标包括生成证据，证明要求学生参与结构化活动与允许学生自行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为期五年的项目中实施纵向随机对照试验，将学生按性别和年龄（18-22岁vs. 23岁及以上）分层，并在每个阶层中随机分配到需要参加规定活动的治疗组，或进入需要参加相同活动但自主参与的对照组。分析将考虑学生人口统计、基线学术特征和学生分组（高中双学分学生、归国成人学生和目前入学的未申报专业或通识专业的学生）。该项目的成果将通过教育期刊，如《社区学院研究与实践期刊》和《社区学院新方向》，以及与stem相关的会议，如美国工程教育学会和德克萨斯州少数族裔工程师协会，进行传播。

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.