Collaborative Research: The Urban STEM Collaboratory - Building STEM Identity and Student Success through Academic, Financial, Social, and Career Support

国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)计划支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业。这个由孟菲斯大学、科罗拉多大学丹佛分校和印第安纳大学-普渡大学印第安纳波利斯分校领导的合作项目将为攻读工程和数学学士学位的学生提供奖学金。通过五年的资助，该项目将支持每个机构至少50名学生，总共150名独特的学生。来自合作机构学院或工程学院和数学系的管理人员和教职员工将合作，提供学术、社交、专业和同行网络，以及职业准备。缺乏STEM身份是学生离开STEM专业和职业的一个根本原因。该项目将调查在城市背景下支持不同类型学生发展STEM身份的机制。该项目的成果将有助于满足国家对工程和数学领域高技能劳动力的需求，并产生关于STEM跨学科身份的知识。该项目旨在提高每个机构数学科学和工程专业的有经济需求的优秀本科生的招生、留住、学生成功率和毕业率。合作机构计划实施雄心勃勃但可行的战略，帮助学生取得学业成功，发展STEM身份，并为劳动力做好准备。此外，他们计划通过徽章制度鼓励学生大量参与项目活动。数学和工程课程的活动将被设计为支持学生成功的高概率。各机构打算进行形成性和总结性评价，重点是确定项目活动、战略和调整的效力和影响。该项目还计划研究影响STEM认同感发展的因素，以及由此对学生成功、态度、工作准备和STEM自我效能的影响。将注意对第一代学生和来自工程和数学专业代表性不足的其他群体的学生的影响。该项目的创新方面将包括部署CourseNetWorking软件的功能，为学者提供他们学习之旅的证据，同时扩大一个有意义的学术社交网络，并通过一个全面的本地云软件环境建立STEM身份。CourseNetking将包括一个学生ePortfolio，它将作为每个学生的作业和成就的数字集合。EPortfolio将提供认证徽章，标志着学生的参与，并将维护学生获得知识、行为和技能集的记录。该项目将努力开发和传播一种经过审查、实用、可持续和可移植的模式，以招收和留住有经济需要的高成就学生，并为他们提供在STEM学习和职业生涯中取得成功的途径。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。

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 collaborative project led by the University of Memphis, the University of Colorado at Denver, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis will provide scholarships to students pursuing baccalaureate degrees in engineering and mathematics. Through its five years of funding, this project will support at least 50 students at each institution, for a total of 150 unique students. Administrators and faculty from the partner institutions' colleges or schools of engineering and mathematics departments will partner to provide academic, social, professional, and peer networking, as well as career preparation. The lack of STEM identity is a fundamental reason that students often cite for leaving STEM majors and careers. This project will investigate mechanisms for supporting a diverse set of students in an urban context in their development of a STEM identity. Results of this project will help meet the national need for a highly skilled workforce in engineering and mathematics and generate knowledge about STEM identity across all disciplines.This project seeks to increase the recruitment, retention, student success, and graduation rates of high-achieving undergraduate students with financial need, who are majoring in mathematical sciences and engineering at each institution. The partnering institutions plan to implement ambitious but feasible strategies that contribute to student academic success, development of STEM identity, and workforce readiness. In addition, they plan to incentivize substantial student participation in project activities through a badging system. Activities for mathematics and engineering classes will be designed to support a high probability of student success. The institutions intend to conduct formative and summative evaluations that will focus on determining effectiveness and impact of the project activities, strategies, and adjustments. The project also plans to examine factors influencing development of STEM identity and the resulting impact on student success, attitudes, workforce readiness, and STEM self-efficacy. Attention will be paid to impact on first-generation students and students from other groups that are underrepresented in engineering and mathematics. Innovative aspects of the project will include deploying features from CourseNetworking software to provide scholars with evidence of their learning journey, while expanding a meaningful academic social network and building a STEM identity facilitated by a comprehensive, cloud-native software environment. CourseNetworking will include a student ePortfolio that will serve as a digital collection of each student's work and accomplishments. The ePortfolio will provide certification badges that mark the student's participation and will maintain a record of the student's attainment of knowledge, behaviors, and skill sets. The project will strive to develop and disseminate a vetted, practical, sustainable, and transportable model to recruit and retain high-achieving students with financial need and provide them with avenues for success in STEM studies and careers.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.