NSF INCLUDES: Design & Development Launch Pilots: UTAH PREP

犹他谷大学（UVU）与合作伙伴韦伯州立大学（WSU）和美国印第安人服务（AIS）正在实施犹他PREP （STEM职业准备），以解决数学早期准备的需求，以加强和激发中学到高等教育到职业的STEM管道。作为犹他预备课程的初步基础，每个合作伙伴目前都主持一个预备课程（UVU PREP， WSU PREP和AIS PREP），该课程确定低收入，代表性不足的少数民族，第一代和进入七年级的女性学生，他们对数学和科学感兴趣和有天赋，并让他们参与为期七周，为期三年的暑期强化课程，整合STEM课程和活动。课程内容融合了技能建设的学术与引人入胜的经验，促进数学概念和程序如何应用于科学和工程的各个领域的清晰理解。课程通过特殊项目、实地考察、大学校园参观和年度科技博览会得到加强。该计划的目的是激励和准备来自不同背景的参与者在高中完成严格的数学课程，以便他们能够成功地从事STEM学习和职业，这对促进地区和国家福利至关重要。犹他预备课程是在德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的德克萨斯预备课程的基础上建立的，该课程在2015年被白宫关于西班牙裔教育卓越计划评为西班牙裔教育的亮点之一。德克萨斯大学对TexPREP进行了调整，以便在犹他州的非少数族裔服务机构和少数族裔人口较少的地区使用，但在学术和大学参与方面存在很大差距。在美国国家科学基金会为期两年的试点项目的资助下，项目合作伙伴正在通过网络改进社区、集体影响方法建立犹他PREP，如果取得明显成功，就有能力扩展到全国范围。该试点项目的目标包括：1)建立犹他州PREP合作，承诺实现一套共同目标和实现这些目标的一套共同计划；2)加强现有的PREP项目，并在犹他州其他两到三所高等教育机构启动犹他PREP，每个机构都建立一个可持续的当地支持网络；3)开发一个共享的测量系统，以评估犹他州PREP项目、适应和相互加强的活动对学生的影响，包括那些在STEM学科中代表性不足的群体；4)启动一个骨干组织，以支持未来扩大项目的影响。

Utah Valley University (UVU) with partners Weber State University (WSU) and American Indian Services (AIS) are implementing UTAH PREP (PREParation for STEM Careers) to address the need for early preparation in mathematics to strengthen and invigorate the secondary-to-postsecondary-to-career STEM pipeline. As the preliminary groundwork for UTAH PREP, each partner currently hosts a PREP program (UVU PREP, WSU PREP, and AIS PREP) that identifies low-income, under-represented minority, first-generation, and female students entering seventh grade who have interest and aptitude in math and science, and involves them in a seven-week, three-year summer intensive program integrating STEM courses and activities. The course content blends skill-building academics with engaging experiences that promote a clear understanding of how mathematical concepts and procedures are applied in various fields of science and engineering. Courses are enhanced through special projects, field trips, college campus visits, and the annual Sci-Tech EXPO. The purpose of the program is to motivate and prepare participants from diverse backgrounds to complete a rigorous program of mathematics in high school so that they can successfully pursue STEM studies and careers, which are vital to advancing the regional and national welfare.UTAH PREP is based on the TexPREP program that originated at the University of Texas at San Antonio and which was named as one of the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2015. TexPREP was adapted by UVU for use in Utah for non-minority serving institutions and in regions with lower minority populations, but with great academic and college participation disparity. With NSF funding for a two-year pilot program, the project partners are building UTAH PREP through a networked improvement community, collective impact approach that, if demonstrably successful, has the ability to scale to a national level. This pilot program's objectives include: 1) creating a UTAH PREP collaboration with commitments to a common set of objectives and common set of plans to achieve them; 2) strengthening existing PREP programs and initiating UTAH PREP at two or three other institutions of higher education in Utah, each building a sustainable local support network; 3) developing a shared measurement system to assess the impact of UTAH PREP programs, adaptations, and mutually reinforcing activities on students, including those from groups that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines; and 4) initiating a backbone organization that will support future scaling of the program's impact.