Encouraging Civil Engineering Retention by Increasing Community and Self-Efficacy

从科学，技术，工程和数学（S-STEM）计划NSF奖学金的资金，“通过增加社区和自我效能鼓励土木工程保留”项目将支持高成就，低收入的学生在南卡罗来纳州的城堡证明经济需要。在五年的时间里，该项目将为攻读土木工程学士学位的学生提供20个奖学金。该项目还将为新入学的学者提供靴子训练营津贴，并为继续学习的学者提供夏季津贴和旅费支助。该项目将寻求解决增加拥有土木工程学士学位的STEM毕业生数量的需求。多样化的土木工程师队伍对于确保公共安全以及人员和货物的有效流动，以支持强劲的经济至关重要。该项目旨在通过招收土木工程专业的学生来满足这一需求，特别是传统工程人才库之外的学生。该项目有可能增加土木工程劳动力的多样性，并可能为土木工程过程本身带来新的视角。它也有可能产生新的见解的影响，教学法和课程排序的变化对学生的表现，自我效能感，和persistence.The S-STEM轨道2项目的目标是鼓励土木工程的多样化，高成就，低收入的学生的持久性。项目目标包括在土木工程中实现85%的持久性，在两个S-STEM队列中实现75%的持久性。每十名学生将组成一个学生学术实践社区。队列成员将被安排在相同的课程，分配到共同的宿舍，并一起参加课外研讨会。在他们的第一年和第二年之前，学生将住在校园里，并在仅限于S-STEM学生的部分完成微积分I和微积分II。在学习的第二年，学生将完成化学I和II在小，主动学习部分。专业导师，研究和实习的机会，将提供提高学生的自我效能。该项目旨在研究干预措施对学生自我效能感，保留和使用有效的工具和后续焦点小组和访谈的表现的影响。该项目有潜力开发理论基础和经验验证的最佳实践，以留住低收入，高性能的工程专业学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the "Encouraging Civil Engineering Retention by Increasing Community and Self-Efficacy" project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at The Citadel in South Carolina. Throughout its five years, this project will fund twenty scholarships for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Civil Engineering. The project will also provide boot camp stipends for entering scholars, as well as summer stipends and travel support for continuing scholars. The project will seek to address the need to increase the number of STEM graduates with bachelor degrees in civil engineering. A diverse pool of civil engineers is significant for ensuring public safety and the efficient movement of people and goods, to support a robust economy. This project aims to meet this need by recruiting students to civil engineering, particularly students who are outside of the traditional pools of engineering talent. The project has the potential to increase the diversity of the civil engineering workforce and may bring new perspectives to the civil engineering process itself. It also has the potential to produce new insights into the impacts that changes to pedagogy and course sequencing have on student performance, self-efficacy, and persistence.The goal of this S-STEM Track 2 project is to encourage persistence of diverse, high-achieving, low-income students in civil engineering. Project objectives include attaining 85% persistence in civil engineering and 75% persistence within the two S-STEM cohorts. Each cohort of ten students will form a student academic community of practice. Cohort members will be scheduled in the same courses, assigned to common dormitories, and participate together in co-curricular seminars. Prior to their first and second years, students will live on campus and complete Calculus I and Calculus II in sections restricted to S-STEM students. During their second year of study, students will complete Chemistry I and II in small, active-learning sections. Professional mentorship, research, and internship opportunities will be provided to enhance students' self-efficacy. The project aims to study the impacts of the interventions on student self-efficacy, retention, and performance using validated instruments and follow-up focus groups and interviews. The project has the potential to develop theoretically grounded and empirically verified best practices for retention of low-income, high-performing engineering students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.