Collaborative Research: Institutional Collaboration to Recruit, Retain and Graduate Low-Income Students in Biology

科克学院、圣伊丽莎白学院、费勒姆学院、库卡学院、默西学院和托马斯大学将与Yes We Must联盟合作，实施一系列精心策划和评估的活动，旨在增加这六所大学中大量不同的低收入学生的生物学专业。美国国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）第三轨道项目将为影响低收入学生保留和获得STEM学位的因素的知识库提供新的信息。通过在生物学学生、教师、项目协调员和外部科学家之间建立跨机构合作伙伴关系，它将为STEM学者创造一个更强大的支持网络和科学身份。该合作项目将有助于提高STEM学者的招聘、坚持和毕业率，并增加STEM相关研究生课程或就业领域的入学资格。这个S-STEM项目建立在六个合作机构各自开发的活动和最佳实践的基础上，同时实施和评估新的活动，包括：(1)CATALYST，一个受“Jumpstart”启发的项目，特别注重帮助学生培养社区意识和归属感；(2)综合的第一年经验，包括基于stem的第一年研讨会，建议和入门科学课程的同伴辅助学习会议；(3)侵入式建议和教师/同伴导师计划，每个学生将与专门的STEM教师和同行STEM导师相匹配；(4)在教师指导下继续实践研究或基于项目的学习；(5)科学家系列研讨会，学生将与STEM领域的专业人士会面；(6)通过一系列密集的研讨会和队列活动，为学生提供STEM职业和研究生院的机会；(7)由Yes We Must Coalition组织的年度研究所，将来自六个合作机构的学生和团队聚集在一起。最后一部分将包括由STEM学者进行的研究，以及旨在提高学生成功的研讨会。将审查所有这些活动对参与机构的入学、留校、毕业和研究生安置率的影响。形成性和总结性项目评估和评估将采用混合方法，包括收集学生数据、调查、访谈和焦点小组。通过解决该项目的中心研究问题，什么因素有助于低收入家庭学生在生物学上取得成功，新的信息将被添加到专门针对低收入家庭学生的研究文献中。除了参与合作研究项目的各机构的历史数据外，该研究还将通过比较STEM学者与目前不符合佩尔资格的STEM学生的队列，来控制种族、民族和第一代身份的中介效应。该项目的另一个特点是，它将为地理上广泛分布的多机构S-STEM合作项目提供可扩展的模型。

Coker College, College of Saint Elizabeth, Ferrum College, Keuka College, Mercy College, and Thomas University will partner with the Yes We Must Coalition to implement a carefully planned and assessed series of activities with the intention of increasing the persistence of a large and diverse cohort of low-income students majoring in Biology across these six institutions. This NSF Scholarship in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) Track 3 project will contribute new information to the knowledge base regarding factors that affect retention and STEM degree attainment of low-income students. By creating cross-institutional partnerships between Biology students, faculty, project coordinators and external scientists, it will create a stronger network of support and scientific identity for the STEM scholars. This collaborative project will help increase the recruitment, persistence and graduation rate of STEM scholars and increase matriculation into a STEM-related graduate program or field of employment. This S-STEM project builds on activities and best practices developed by each of the six collaborating institutions while implementing and assessing new activities including: (1) CATALYST, a "Jumpstart"-inspired program with a particular focus on helping students develop a sense of community and belonging; (2) an integrated first-year experience including a STEM-based first-year seminar, advising, and peer-assisted study sessions for gateway science classes; (3) intrusive advising and a faculty/peer mentors program where each student will be matched with a dedicated STEM faculty member and peer STEM mentor; (4) continuing hands-on research or project-based learning under faculty mentorship; (5) seminar series by scientists during which students will meet working professionals in STEM fields; (6) graduate school and career preparation through an intensive series of workshops and cohort activities to educate students about STEM career and graduate school opportunities; and (7) an annual institute that will bring the cohort of students and teams from the six collaborating institutions together organized by the Yes We Must Coalition. This last component will feature research conducted by the STEM Scholars, in addition to workshops designed to increase student success. The impact of all these activities on enrollment, retention, graduation, and post-graduate placement rates at the participating institutions will be examined. Formative and summative project evaluation and assessment will employ mixed methods including collection of student data, surveys, interviews, and focus groups. By addressing the project's central research question, what factors contribute to success of low-income students in Biology, new information will be added to the research literature specific to low-income students. The study will control for mediating effects of race, ethnicity and first-generation status by comparing the cohort of STEM scholars to current non-Pell eligible STEM students, in addition to historical data across the institutions participating in the collaborative research project. An additional feature of this project is that it will provide a scalable model of a geographically far-flung, multi-institutional S-STEM collaborative project.