NSF Includes. FIRST TWO: Improving STEM persistence in the first two years of college.

在科学、技术、工程和数学（简称STEM）领域发展和保持一支多元化、创新的劳动力队伍对美国在世界上的竞争力至关重要，但全国调查显示，美国目前和未来都缺乏高素质的STEM专业人员。造成这种短缺的一个问题是，在所有宣布主修STEM领域的大学生中，超过一半的人在接受高等教育的前两年辍学或换了专业。这个问题对于第一代大学生来说尤其严重。如果我们能将STEM学位完成率提高25%，我们就能满足未来十年75%的新增劳动力需求。我们的项目旨在提高第一代大学生对STEM的坚持，重点关注西弗吉尼亚州的农村学生。项目合作伙伴包括来自国家实验室的科学家、大学教师、当地学校系统的工作人员、非正式教育者、州教育部官员和西弗吉尼亚州的大学生，他们将合作开展夏季和学年活动，为主修STEM的年轻本科生提供支持。我们将试点的活动包括早期的科学研究机会，培养科学、数学和沟通技能的学年课程，以及组建家乡STEM大使；鼓励更年轻的学生回到家乡的学校。我们将研究这些活动对学生坚持STEM专业的影响。我们的项目叫做FIRST TWO：提高大学前两年的STEM坚持度（FIRST TWO）。技术细节：在开发启动项目期间，合作伙伴将创建和试点两门课程的组成部分，这两门课程将授予两年制和四年制学校的学生大学学分。每门课程都将以研究和开发实习为中心。在项目发展试点结束时，前两个课程模块将被整合到州课程中，并在社区大学和四年制学校之间转换。FIRST TWO的一个创新部分是创建家乡STEM大使——参加这两门课程的学生将准备好指导他们的同龄人，并在他们的家乡学区进行外展。他们将向家乡的K-12学生做演讲，并与当地教育领导人讨论STEM大学准备问题。我们相信，将高等教育学生与他们的家庭社区重新联系起来，并为他们的STEM教育提供基于地点的相关性，将对他们的坚持产生积极影响，以及鼓励k -12学生将自己设想为未来的STEM专业人士的额外好处。FIRST TWO将：-将STEM实习、在线实践社区和STEM技能发展的早期经验整合到一年级学生的基于发现的“研究与开发原则”学院研讨会中；-通过第二门名为STEM领导力的服务学习课程来保持参与，该课程将培养沟通和指导技能，并培养同侪导师，他们将指导年轻学生，加入改变学校STEM教育经历的努力，并在学生期间在家乡社区开展外展活动。第二年和第三年。-确保这些课程或课程材料在全州范围内的采用和可转移性，并最终将该计划扩展到整个阿巴拉契亚地区和其他拥有大量农村学生的州。-与国家实验室合作，确定国家STEM坚持联盟与为FGC学生提供服务的2年制和4年制学校合作的国家实验室实习项目的可行性。最后，有许多研究调查了与中学后留校率相关的因素，特别是与STEM流失有关的因素，但很少有研究关注农村学生。FIRST TWO将充分阐述一个严谨的教育研究项目，旨在促进对影响农村学生进入和坚持STEM职业道路的因素的理解。本研究将研究首两个项目组成部分对农村FGC学生坚持STEM专业的影响。将开发和验证仪器，以测试前两个干预措施中提出的组成部分。随着我们将项目规模扩大到一个更大的联盟，研究学习规模也将扩大，为教育社区提供一个独特的机会，让他们了解农村学生的经历。

Developing and maintaining a diverse, innovative workforce in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (known as STEM) is critical to American competitiveness in the world, but national surveys report a current and future shortage of highly qualified STEM professionals in the US. One problem creating this shortage is that more than half of all college students who declare a major in STEM fields drop out or change their majors in the first two years of their post-secondary education. This problem is particularly acute for first generation college students. If we could increase the STEM degree completion rate by just 25%, we would make up 75% of the additional workforce needed over the next decade.Our project aims to increase the STEM persistence of first generation college students and focuses on rural students in West Virginia. Project partners including scientists from National Labs, college faculty, local school system staff, informal educators, State Department of Education officials, and West Virginia college students will collaborate to develop summer and academic year activities that support young undergraduates majoring in STEM. Activities that we will pilot include early opportunities to do science research, academic year courses that develop science, math and communication skills, and the formation of Hometown STEM Ambassadors; undergraduate STEM students that encourage younger students back in their hometown schools. We will study the impact of these activities on students' persistence in STEM majors. Our Project is called FIRST TWO: Improving STEM Persistence in the First Two Years of College (FIRST TWO).Technical Details:During the Development Launch Project, partners will create and pilot components of two coursesthat will confer college credit to students in two and four year schools. Each course will haveas its center piece a research and development internship. By the end of the Project DevelopmentPilot, FIRST TWO course modules will be integrated into courses the State, and be transferablebetween community colleges and four-year schools. An innovative component of FIRST TWO is the creation of Hometown STEM ambassadors--studentswho participate in both courses will be prepared to mentor their peers, and also conduct outreachin their home school districts. They will make presentations to hometown K-12 students, and willdiscuss STEM college readiness issues with local education leaders. We believe reconnecting post-secondary students with their home communities and providing place-based relevance to their STEM education will have a positive impact on their persistence, as well as the added benefit of encouragingK-12 students to envision themselves as future STEM professionals.FIRST TWO will:- integrate early experience in STEM internships, online communities of practice and STEM skills development into a discovery-based "principles of research and development" college seminar for first year students; - sustain engagement through a second service learning course, called STEM Leadership that will develop communication and mentoring skills and produce peer mentors who will mentor younger students, join in the efforts to change the STEM education experience at their schools, and conduct outreach in their hometown communities during the students? second year and third years.- secure state-wide adoption and transferability of these courses, or course materials, and ultimately scale the program across the Appalachian region and to other states with large rural student populations.- collaborate with National Labs to determine the feasibility of a National STEM Persistence Alliance partnering National Lab internship programs with 2 and 4-year schools who serve FGC students.Finally, there are many studies that inquire into the factors that correlate with post-secondary retention in general, and with STEM attrition specifically but few that focus on rural students. FIRST TWO will fully articulate a rigorous educational research project aimed at advancing understanding of the factors affecting rural students' entry into and persistence in STEM career pathways. This research will study the impact FIRST TWO program components make on rural FGC students' persistence in STEM majors. Instruments will be developed and validated that test the components proposed in FIRST TWO interventions. As we scale the program to a larger Alliance, so will the research study scale, providing a unique opportunity to inform the education community about the rural students' experience.