Breaking the Cycle through Computational Physics: Preparing West Virginia's Rural, First Generation College Students for the Careers of the Future

在国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目的资助下，该项目将支持西弗吉尼亚大学这个项目的高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生。具体地说，该项目将提供20个奖学金，以支持阿巴拉契亚农村地区计算物理专业的学生。学者们将参加一系列仅限物理专业的小型课程，这些课程旨在形成一批学者，他们建立的个人关系将支持他们度过大学生涯。这些课程还将提供自我调节学习方面的职业发展和指导。农村学生上大学时往往没有取得成功所需的学习技能。这些技能将通过课程政策和构建在入门物理序列中的特定练习来发展。该项目还将使微积分1成为物理1的必修课，而不是必修课。这一修改将支持学生在物理和微积分方面取得成功。学者还将得到频繁的、侵入性的咨询，以及学习技能和职业规划的帮助，实践证明，这些做法可以提高留住能力。职业指导将通过有针对性的课堂、个人建议和一系列专业发展活动，贯穿奖学金获得者的整个课程工作。该项目预计将有助于解决一个关键的全国性问题：农村学生比其他学生更不可能主修STEM学科。该项目中的目标阿巴拉契亚学生可以成为高等教育如何成为经济转型和未来之路的典范。由于计算机职业提供了远程工作的机会，一些学生会回到他们的社区，这表明高等教育与与社区的持续联系是兼容的。许多学生进入大学时并不具备成功所需的自我调节技能。然而，学生们可以在到达后发展这些技能。使用一个广泛的机构数据集，这个项目将衡量精心设计和沟通的课程政策和作业的效果，并得到明确的指导。此外，它还将使用在微积分和物理课上收集的关于学生信仰和行为的额外数据。该项目将确定这些干预措施是否改善了保留率并改善了自我调节。学者将收到关于他们的行为对他们的课程成绩的影响的定量反馈。该项目将确定这种反馈是否有效地在行为上产生积极的改变，以及如何提供反馈以达到最大效果。修改后的配套要求和鼓励发展自主学习的政策相结合，可以为改善农村STEM学生在该国其他地区的留校率提供一种普遍的模式。因此，该项目的研究可能会带来超出该项目支持的学生群体的好处。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。

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need this project at West Virginia University. Specifically, this project will provide 20 scholarships to support rural Appalachian students majoring in Computational Physics. Scholars will take a sequence of small physics-majors-only courses designed to form a cohort of Scholars, who build personal connections that will support them through their university career. The courses will also provide career development and instruction in Self-Regulated Learning. Rural students often come to college without the study skills required to be successful. These skills will be developed through course policy and specific exercises built into the introductory physics sequence. The project will also allow Calculus 1 to become a corequisite, rather than prerequisite, for Physics 1. This modification will support student success in both physics and calculus. Scholars will also be supported by frequent, intrusive advising, and study skill and career planning assistance, practices have been shown to improve retention. The career guidance will be provided throughout the Scholar's coursework in targeted classes, through individual advising, and through a sequence of professional development activities. This project is expected to help solve a critical national problem: rural students are less likely than others to major in STEM disciplines. The targeted Appalachian students in this project can become examples of how higher education can be the path to economic transformation and the future. Because computational careers offer opportunities to work remotely, some students will return to their communities, demonstrating that higher education is compatible with a sustained connection to the community.Many students do not enter the university with the self-regulation skills required for success. However, students can develop these skills after they arrive. Using an extensive institutional dataset, this project will measure the effects of carefully designed and communicated course policy and assignments, reinforced by explicit instruction. In addition, it will use additional data on students' beliefs and behavior collected in the calculus and physics classes. The project will determine if these interventions improve retention and lead to improved self-regulation. Scholars will receive quantitative feedback on the effect of their behavior on their course grade. The project will determine if this feedback is effective in producing positive changes in behavior and how the feedback should be delivered for maximum effect. The modified co-requisite requirements and the integration of policies that encourage the development of self-regulated learning could produce a generalizable model for improving retention of rural STEM students in other areas of the country. Thus, the research from this project could have benefits that extend beyond the cohorts of students supported in this project.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.