Developing a Life Sciences Workforce with Strong Quantitative Skills

NSF科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划支持具有经济需求的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。 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，并与数学，计算机科学或统计学的专业或辅修专业相结合。在五年的资助期间，该项目将资助五组四名学生的20个奖学金。具有强大的数学和生物技能互补的理科毕业生是创新和推动美国生物科学经济的理想人选。 该项目旨在整合计算和生命科学教育。毕业的学者将拥有生命科学职业所必需的计算技能，相反，科学背景，以支持需要计算方法的合作。该项目预计将增加从生命科学和计算科学专业，未成年人和双专业组合毕业的学生人数。 这些努力旨在弥合计算科学和生命科学之间的“文化鸿沟”。 该项目将招募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。该计划的毕业生预计将推进劳动力的科学理解，并为美国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课程交叉起来，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，它将提供学者丰富的座谈会，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，群体强化活动将提高学生在科学和数学专业/未成年人组合的保留。 他们还预计，数学熟练的学生将比同龄人更经常地选择从事研究型职业。 项目研究人员将分析STEM专业的保留率，主要/次要组合的数量，以及比较同龄人，其他STEM和非STEM专业对科学态度的调查。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，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.