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

在NSF科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划的资助下，该项目将支持西弗吉尼亚大学表现出经济需求的高成就，低收入学生。 具体而言，该项目将提供20个奖学金，以支持阿巴拉契亚农村学生主修计算物理。学者将参加一系列小型物理专业课程，旨在形成一批学者，他们建立个人关系，支持他们的大学生涯。这些课程还将提供职业发展和自我调节学习的指导。农村学生上大学时往往缺乏成功所需的学习技能。这些技能将通过课程政策和具体的练习纳入到介绍物理序列的发展。该项目还将使微积分1成为物理学1的必备条件，而不是先决条件。这种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，侵入性的建议，学习技能和职业规划援助的支持，实践已被证明可以提高保留。职业指导将通过奖学金获得者在目标班级的课程，通过个人咨询以及一系列专业发展活动提供。该项目有望帮助解决一个关键的国家问题：农村学生不太可能比其他人主修STEM学科。该项目中的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例子。由于计算机职业提供了远程工作的机会，一些学生将返回他们的社区，这表明高等教育与社区的持续联系是相容的。许多学生在进入大学时并不具备成功所需的自我调节技能。但是，学生可以在到达后培养这些技能。使用广泛的机构数据集，该项目将衡量精心设计和沟通的课程政策和作业的效果，并通过明确的指导来加强。此外，它将使用在微积分和物理课上收集的关于学生信念和行为的额外数据。该项目将确定这些干预措施是否能提高保留率，并导致自我调节的改善。学者将收到关于他们的行为对课程成绩的影响的定量反馈。该项目将确定这种反馈是否能有效地产生积极的行为变化，以及如何传递反馈以获得最大效果。修改后的共同要求和鼓励发展自主学习的政策的整合可以产生一个可推广的模式，以提高该国其他地区农村STEM学生的保留率。因此，从这个项目的研究可能有好处，超出了在这个项目中支持的学生群体。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

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.