Collaborative Research: Student Pathways in Engineering and Computing for Transfer Success

该项目由美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学项目奖学金资助，将支持斯帕坦堡社区学院、三叉戟社区学院和克莱姆森大学表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生。该项目旨在提高这些学生的招生、留用、学业成绩和毕业率，这些学生从社区大学开始他们的学术道路，然后转到四年制大学的工程和计算机学位课程。在五年的时间里，该项目将为316名攻读工程或计算机学士学位的转校生提供奖学金。STEM教育面临的一个全国性挑战是，工程专业学生从社区大学转到四年制大学的毕业率很低。这种低成功率的一个驱动因素是社区大学的学生对他们在四年制大学将面临的文化差异准备不足。此外，四年制大学往往缺乏社会和学术支持来帮助弥合这一差距。该项目的组成部分包括：1)奖学金计划，为低收入，成绩优异的转学生提供经济支持；2)基于证据的指导和队列建设项目，支持转学成功；3)博士生培训计划，包括教学、指导和教育研究方面的培训。预计该计划将有助于提高国家STEM劳动力的质量和多样性，并增加对支持转学生成功的工作的理解。除了为低收入、学业优异的转学生提供奖学金外，该项目还通过实施和评估基于实践社区和认知指导等循证策略的队列指导模型，解决了转学生面临的众所周知的障碍。该项目旨在支持转学生在大学的文化适应，以及学位的完成和在工业劳动力中的安置。该项目将招募和培训10名克莱姆森STEM博士研究生，让他们在教学、指导和应用教育研究方面进行沉浸式体验，以从事学术界的职业。该培训将包括在社区学院实习，在那里他们将：1)与社区学院的教员共同教授工程课程；2)培养并带领一群低收入社区大学生进行基于项目的创造性探究课程，该课程将成为应用教育研究的重点；3)带着发达的学员回到克莱姆森大学，从而帮助弥合制度差距。该项目将进行严格的内部和外部教育评估和项目评估，以确定学生成功的关键指标，并提供可用于改善其他机构STEM教育的信息。这项工作的成果将通过数字渠道（如电子通讯、listservs）、在全国会议上的演讲以及在同行评审期刊和行业期刊上的出版物广泛传播，以达到从高等教育到渴望卓越的低收入学生的广泛受众。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。

With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, this project will support high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Spartanburg Community College, Trident Community College, and Clemson University. This project aims to increase the recruitment, retention, academic success, and graduation rates of these students who begin their academic path at community colleges and transfer into engineering and computing degree programs at four-year institutions.Over a five-year period, this project will provide scholarships to 316 transfer students to pursue bachelor's degrees in engineering or computing. A national challenge in STEM education is the low graduation rate of engineering students who transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions. One driver of this low success rate is the insufficient preparation of community college students for the cultural differences they will face at the four-year institution. In addition, the four-year institution often lacks social and academic support to help bridge this gap. The project components include: 1) a scholarship program to financially support low-income, high-achieving transfer students; 2) an evidence-based mentorship and cohort building program that supports transfer success; and 3) a Ph.D. student traineeship program that includes training in teaching, mentoring, and education research. It is expected that the program will contribute to the quality and diversity of the national STEM workforce and increase understanding of what works to support success of transfer students.In addition to providing scholarships to low-income, academically high-achieving transfer students, this project addresses the well-known hurdles for transfer students by implementing and assessing a cohort mentoring model based on evidence-based strategies including communities of practice and cognitive mentorship. The program elements are designed to support transfer student enculturation in the university, as well as degree completion and placement in the industrial workforce. The program will recruit and train ten Clemson STEM PhD students for careers in academia by engaging them in immersive experiences in teaching, mentoring, and applied educational research. This training will include a residency at the community college sites where they will: 1) co-teach engineering courses with community college faculty; 2) develop and lead a cohort of low-income community college students in a project-based Creative Inquiry course that will be a focus of applied educational research; and 3) return to Clemson with the developed cohort, thus helping to bridge the institutional gap. The program will conduct rigorous internal and external educational assessment and program evaluation to identify key indicators of student success and to provide information that can be used to improve STEM education at other institutions. Results from this work will be broadly disseminated through digital outlets (e.g., e-newsletters; listservs), presentations at national conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed and trade journals to reach audiences ranging from higher education to low-income students with aspirations of excellence.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.