Life STEM EAGER: Exploring the Relationship between High School Mathematics and Bioscience, Standardized Testing and College Performance in Biotechnology-related Fields

ECR项目强调基础STEM教育研究，这将产生该领域的基础知识。该项目将侧重于一个想法的早期探索性研究，该想法将揭示开发更有效的干预措施的方法，以解决生物科学和生物工程管道的学生保留问题。因此，这项研究将通过采取激进的方法，超越数学作为决定学生参与STEM领域的关键主要因素，帮助满足未来的劳动力需求。为了更好地了解这些因素可能是什么，本研究将检查两所当地高中的高中成绩单。它还将审查350名本科生的记录，这些本科生包括已经入学的、正在入学的、已经毕业的、在同一所大学转到另一个非stem领域的、或离开生物技术相关领域的本科专业的。数据来源将包括高中和大学中所有数学、生物科学、生物技术相关课程的信息；大学入学考试成绩，以及学生在本科阶段生物工程的表现。本研究将尝试开启一条新的研究路线，寻找与生物科学和生物工程教育相关的因素，作为揭示可能对这些领域的学生参与产生负面影响的因素的新方法。一个跨学科的方法将被用来挖掘和分析学生数据在数学，生物科学，工程和技术的交叉点。虽然目前还不清楚这种方法是否会产生任何可能对社会有益的新见解，但知道这个想法是否有效将是对该领域的宝贵贡献。此外，这种方法不仅与生物科学和生物工程相关，而且对国家的努力也很重要，并将为NSF的“利用数据革命的大想法”做出贡献。然而，尝试合并来自多个来源的数据集是有风险的，因为它可能不会揭示任何有意义的信息，对解决学生保留问题有用。这种风险可能会进一步加剧，因为研究的重点主要集中在内容驱动因素上，途径和课程的广泛变化，课程的可用性，学生发展的个人差异，以及对特定STEM科目的动机和兴趣。由于这项工作的复杂性，以及主要关注学生在这些领域的表现和成功，风险很高。尽管存在这些风险，但本研究的结果可以潜在地确定除数学之外的因素，这些因素可能会导致当前的流失率。因此，本研究将为更有效的干预模式的发展提供信息，有助于优先考虑扩大参与的努力，并促进进一步的研究。仅这些项目就使该项目成为ECR项目组合中STEM教育基础知识的优先资助项目和贡献。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。

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. This project will focus on an early stage exploratory study of an idea that will reveal ways to develop more effective interventions to address student retention in bioscience and bioengineering pipelines. As such, this study will help meet future workforce needs by taking a radical approach and looking beyond mathematics as the key major factor that determines student participation in STEM fields. To better understand what these factors might be, this study will examine high school transcripts from two local high schools. It will also review records of 350 undergraduate students who have been enrolled, are currently enrolled, have graduated, switched to another non-STEM field at the same institution, or left undergraduate programs in biotechnology-related fields. Data sources will include information on all mathematics, bioscience, biotechnology-related courses taken in high school and in college; college entrance test scores, and students' performance in bioengineering at the undergraduate level. This study will attempt to initiate a new line of research in search of factors associated with bioscience and bioengineering education as a novel approach for uncovering factors that may negatively influence student participation in these fields.An interdisciplinary approach will be used to mine and analyze student data at the intersection of mathematics, biosciences, engineering, and technology. Although it is unclear if this approach will generate any new insights potentially beneficial to society, knowing whether the idea works or not will be a valuable contribution to the field. Additionally, this approach will not only be relevant to biosciences and bioengineering, but also important to national efforts, and will contribute to NSF's Big Idea on Harnessing the Data Revolution. However, attempting to merge data sets from multiple sources is risky since it may not reveal any meaningful information useful to addressing student retention. Such risks may be further compounded by the limited focus of the study on mostly content driven factors, a wide variation of pathways and classes, availability of courses, personal variation of student development, and motivation and interest in particular STEM subjects. Due to the complexity of this undertaking and the focus largely on student performance and success in these fields, the risk is high. These risks notwithstanding, outcomes from this study could potentially identify factors, other than mathematics, that might contribute to current attrition rates. Thus, this study will inform the development of more effective models of intervention, help prioritize broadening participation efforts, and promote further research. These items alone make this project a priority for funding and a contribution to foundational knowledge in STEM education in the ECR program portfolio.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.