Creating Retention and Engagement for Academically Talented Engineers

为有学术才华的工程师创造保留和参与度

• 批准号: 1833738
• 负责人: Indira Chatterjee
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1833738&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Creating; Retention; Engagement; Academically; Talented

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project at the University of Nevada, Reno, will support the success of 32 high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need. Throughout its five years, this project will support two cohorts of 16 students who are pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering. Cohort-building activities will include an academic boot camp before the students' first college semester, and courses taken by all cohort members. The project will provide a monthly seminar series on topics such as internships, industry mentoring, undergraduate research, and international exchange programs. The project's activities have been positively linked to academic success. This project aims to achieve broader impact by contributing to state and federal strategic workforce diversification goals. Project activities that support these goals include engineering outreach programs and courses on engineering design for K-12 educators. It is expected that the project will generate new knowledge about how engineering education can be improved to better serve the growing number of lower-income, academically talented students entering college. The project will educate graduates who are prepared to directly enter graduate school or work in industry, thus contributing to developing a diverse, flexible, and well-educated STEM workforce. A mixed-methods research design will be used to study the effects of implemented practices on the self-efficacy and engineering identity of the student cohorts. The explicit research objective is to add to existing knowledge about student characteristics and issues that help low-income, academically high-achieving students succeed in engineering and related disciplines. This project will fill gaps in knowledge about the development of self-efficacy and engineering identity in low-income, academically talented students. The project will also identify the most effective combinations of curricular and co-curricular activities that strengthen individual students' self-efficacy and identity, with the goal of developing intervention techniques that retain engineering majors through graduation and placement in industry or graduate school. Quantitative measurable outcomes will include increased student retention, increased cohort self-efficacy and identity statistics, higher-than-average graduation rates for the cohorts using evidence-based programs, and successful placement in industry or graduate school. Qualitative measurable outcomes, determined by participant interviews and surveys, will include attainment of academic and personal goals, increased leadership skills and confidence levels, and established sense of community. These outcomes will be an important contribution to knowledge about recruitment and retention of low-income, academically high-achieving students in the engineering disciplines.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.

在国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目的资助下，内华达大学雷诺分校的这个项目将支持32名有经济需求的优秀学生的成功。在整个五年中，该项目将支持两批16人的学生，他们正在攻读材料科学和工程以及土木工程、化学、电气、环境和机械工程的学士学位。队列建设活动将包括在学生第一个大学学期之前举行学术新兵训练营，以及由所有队列成员参加的课程。该项目将提供每月一次的研讨会系列，主题包括实习、行业指导、本科生研究和国际交流计划。该项目的活动与学术成功有着积极的联系。该项目旨在通过促进州和联邦战略劳动力多样化目标来实现更广泛的影响。支持这些目标的项目活动包括面向K-12教育工作者的工程外展计划和工程设计课程。预计该项目将产生关于如何改进工程教育的新知识，以更好地服务于越来越多的低收入、学业优秀的大学入学学生。该项目将教育准备直接进入研究生院或在行业工作的毕业生，从而为培养一支多样化、灵活和受过良好教育的STEM劳动力做出贡献。采用混合方法的研究设计，研究实施实践对学生群体自我效能感和工程认同感的影响。明确的研究目标是增加关于学生特征和问题的现有知识，以帮助低收入、学业成绩优异的学生在工程学和相关学科取得成功。这个项目将填补低收入、有学术天赋的学生在自我效能感和工程认同感发展方面的知识空白。该项目还将确定最有效的课程和联合课程活动的组合，以增强学生的自我效能感和认同感，目标是开发干预技术，在毕业和进入行业或研究生院就业期间留住工程专业的学生。量化的可衡量结果将包括增加学生保留率，增加队列自我效能和身份统计，使用循证计划的队列毕业率高于平均水平，以及成功进入行业或研究生院。由参与者访谈和调查确定的定性可衡量结果将包括学术和个人目标的实现、更高的领导技能和信心水平以及既定的社区意识。这些结果将是对工程学科招收和留住低收入、学业优秀学生的知识的重要贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。