STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems

东门诺特大学（EMU） STEM学者参与当地问题（SSELP）计划将提供14个奖学金给有学术才华的低收入学生，他们将在区域和全国范围内的高需求STEM领域寻求就业、服务或继续教育。该项目将利用当地社区和周围的谢南多厄山谷作为丰富的资源，以动手、问题到解决的方式激发和教授学生STEM概念。学者们将通过嵌入在他们的课程中并专注于现实世界问题的小型研究项目，尽早和持续地接触到基于探究和问题的学习。此外，EMU将为一年级学生提供新的科学与工程实践课程。该实习将通过提供不同职业的学生和STEM专业人员之间的互动，以及对这些经历的反思性写作，突出STEM职业的多样性。奖学金，包括一些学术干预和支持，包括辅导，指导，职业技能建设，鼓励有学术天赋的低收入学生追求并坚持STEM专业。这些干预措施的目的是提高学生的承诺，作为积极的，有贡献的公民；建立自我效能感;让他们参与STEM学习；并帮助他们设想多种STEM职业道路。SSELP计划将1)招收两组7名有学术天赋的低收入家庭学生，主修生物学、化学、生物化学、工程学、计算机科学、数学或环境科学；2)将93%（13/14）的SSELP学者保留到第二年；3)四年内培养14名SSELP学者，其中93%（毕业一年内）从事与STEM相关的工作、服务项目或研究生项目；4)通过探索基于地点的跨学科项目在多大程度上提高STEM学生对其专业的动机水平，从而产生本科STEM教育知识。在学生参与基于本地的跨学科合作项目之前和之后，将使用有效的调查来评估他们学习STEM的动机。从与SSELP学者的半结构化访谈中收集的定性信息将加强这些定量数据。虽然在地学习的影响已被证明可以提高中小学生的参与度和积极性，但在高等教育环境中，这方面的学术工作还存在差距。因此，SSELP计划也将有助于增加对学生效能和动机的了解。

The Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems (SSELP) program will provide 14 scholarships to academically talented, low-income students who will pursue employment, service, or continued education in high-need STEM fields regionally and nationwide. This program will use the local community and the surrounding Shenandoah Valley as a rich resource to inspire and teach students STEM concepts in a hands-on, problem-to-solution based manner. Scholars will receive early and consistent exposure to inquiry- and problem-based learning through mini-research projects that are embedded in their courses and focused on real-world issues. In addition, EMU will offer a new Science and Engineering Practicum course for first year scholars.  This practicum will highlight the variety of STEM careers by providing interactions between students and STEM professionals across different careers followed by reflective writing on those experiences.  Scholarships, with several academic interventions and supports including tutoring, mentoring, career skill-building, encourage academically talented, low-income students to pursue and persist in STEM majors. These interventions are designed to heighten student commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens; build self-efficacy; engage them in their STEM studies; and help them to envision multiple STEM career pathways. The SSELP program will 1) recruit two cohorts of seven academically talented, low-income students majoring in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, engineering, computer science, mathematics, or environmental science; 2) retain 93% (13/14) of SSELP scholars to Year 2; 3) graduate 14 SSELP scholars in four years and place 93% of them (within one year of graduation) in jobs, service programs, or graduate programs related to STEM; and 4) generate undergraduate STEM education knowledge by exploring the extent to which a place-based interdisciplinary project develops STEM students' level of motivation for their major. Student motivation for STEM studies will be assessed using validated surveys before and after their participation in the local-based, interdisciplinary, collaborative project. These quantitative data will be enhanced by qualitative information gathered from semi-structured interviews with the SSELP scholars. While the impact of place-based learning has been shown to improve engagement and motivation in primary and secondary students, there is a gap in scholarly work on this for higher education settings. Thus, the SSELP program will also contribute to the growing knowledge on student efficacy and motivation.