Developing a Life Sciences Workforce with Strong Quantitative Skills

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。圣迈克尔学院的这个项目将为攻读生命科学学士学位的学生提供奖学金，并结合主修或副修数学、计算机科学或统计学。在五年的资助期内，该项目将资助20个奖学金，每组4名学生。具有强大的互补数学和生物学技能的科学毕业生是创新和推动美国生物科学经济的理想人选。本项目旨在整合计算与生命科学教育。即将毕业的学者将拥有生命科学事业所必需的计算技能，反过来，科学背景可以支持需要计算方法的合作。该项目预计将增加生命科学和计算科学专业、副修专业和双专业组合毕业的学生数量。这些努力旨在弥合计算科学和生命科学之间的“文化鸿沟”。该项目将招收来自不同群体的低收入学生，包括第一代、女性、农村和其他在STEM领域代表性不足的群体。该计划的毕业生有望促进劳动力的科学理解，并为美国的STEM劳动力做出贡献。该项目将成功的生命科学和计算密集型项目联系起来，开发有效的跨学科课程，培养具有强大生命科学和数学技能的毕业生。为了实现这些目标，它将为学者提供丰富的座谈会、校友网络、会议旅行、实习和研究机会，并将支持教师建立跨学科的联系。该项目预测，队伍加强活动将提高学生在科学和数学专业/辅修组合中的留存率。他们还预计，擅长数学的学生将比同龄人更多地选择以研究为基础的职业。项目研究人员将分析STEM专业的保留率，主修/副修组合的人数，以及对队列，其他STEM和非STEM专业的科学态度的比较调查。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. This project at St. Michael's College will provide scholarships to students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in life sciences, in combination with a major or minor in mathematics, computer science, or statistics. Throughout its five years of funding, this project will fund 20 scholarships in five groups of four students. Science graduates with strong complementary mathematical and biological skills are ideally positioned to innovate and drive the United States bioscience economy. This project aims to integrate computational and life science education. The graduating Scholars will have computational skills essential for life science careers, and conversely, science backgrounds to support collaborations that require computational approaches. This project expects to increase the number of students graduating with majors, minors, and double major combinations from life sciences and computational sciences. These efforts aim to bridge the 'culture gap' between computational and life sciences. The project will recruit low income students from different groups, including first generation, female, rural, and other groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields. Graduates of this program are expected to advance scientific understanding in the workforce and to contribute to the U.S. STEM workforce. The project will crosslink successful life science and computationally intensive programs to develop effective interdisciplinary curricula that can educate graduates with strong life science and mathematical skills. To accomplish these goals, it will offer Scholars enrichment colloquia, alumni networking, conference travel, internships, and research opportunities, and will support faculty to build interdisciplinary connections. The project predicts that cohort-strengthening activities will enhance student retention in science and math major/minor combinations. They also expect that mathematically adept students will more often choose to pursue research-based careers than their peers. The project researchers will analyze retention rates in STEM majors, numbers in major/minor combinations, and surveys comparing attitudes towards science in the cohort, other STEM, and non-STEM majors.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.