Empowering Academically Talented STEM Undergraduates through Early Experiences in Teaching and Mentoring of K-8 Youth

该项目将通过支持内布拉斯加大学奥马哈分校（UNO）表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。UNO是一所城市大学，追求卓越的教学，研究和服务，为该地区提供受过良好教育的劳动力和公民。该项目为期五年，将为24名攻读生物学、化学、环境研究、地质学、分子和生物医学生物学、生物信息学、神经科学或物理学学士学位的学生提供四年奖学金。该项目将采用本地开发的指导和教学模式，结合精心设计的基于课程的本科生研究经验，为本科生提供早期和创新的专业发展和领导机会，为21世纪的科学就业做好准备。该项目将在高度多元化的奥马哈公立学区（Omaha Public School District）开展一个基于问题的STEM课后学习项目，让本科生参与教学和指导K-8学生。奥马哈公立学区近75%的学生经济状况不佳。这个项目将有助于理解如何提高STEM学习，不仅是为本科生，而且为所有学习者。与此同时，该项目将产生从K-8到大学再到劳动力的STEM管道。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体而言，该项目旨在利用奖学金，结合本地开发的成功指导和教学模式以及基于课程的本科研究经验（CUREs），加强STEM劳动力。虽然教学和指导模式的策略和CUREs都已被证明在提高STEM学科的学生保留率和成功方面是有效的，但对低收入，学术上有天赋的学生的影响尚未得到具体调查。本项目旨在确定其综合效应。此外，该项目有可能通过在具有类似背景的本科生的指导下鼓励K-8青年将科学视为一个领域，从而产生强大的STEM管道。如果这些干预措施能够帮助解决当地的STEM学习挑战并加强STEM管道，那么它将代表一个垂直整合的项目，作为值得复制的国家模式。该项目的有效性将使用融合的类型学模型进行评估，该模型包括允许定量和定性分析的混合方法。该项目的结果将在地方、区域和国家会议上公布，并将在教育和特定学科期刊上发表。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). UNO is a metropolitan university that pursues excellence in teaching, research, and service to provide an educated workforce and citizenry to the region. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 24 students who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry, environmental studies, geology, molecular and biomedical biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience, or physics. The project will provide early and innovative professional development and leadership opportunities that prepare undergraduates for 21st century employment in science, using a locally developed mentoring and teaching model combined with carefully designed course-based undergraduate research experiences. The program will engage undergraduates in teaching and mentoring of K-8 students in an after-school program of problem-based learning STEM lessons in the highly diverse Omaha Public School District. Almost 75% of the students from the Omaha Public School District are economically disadvantaged. This project will contribute to an understanding of how to improve STEM learning, not only for undergraduate students, but for all learners. At the same time, this project will generate a STEM pipeline from K-8 through college and into the workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project aims to strengthen the STEM workforce by using scholarship funding coupled with a locally developed, successful mentoring and teaching model and course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Though both the strategies of teaching and mentoring models and the CUREs have been shown to be effective in increasing student retention and success in the STEM disciplines, the impact on low- income, academically talented students has not been specifically investigated. This project aims to determine the combined effect. Furthermore, the project has the potential to generate a robust STEM pipeline by encouraging K-8 youth to consider science as a field via their mentorship by undergraduates of similar backgrounds. If such interventions can help address local STEM learning challenges and enhance the STEM pipeline, it will represent a vertically integrated project to be embraced as a national model worthy of replication. The effectiveness of the project will be evaluated using a convergent typological model inclusive of mixed methods allowing quantitative and qualitative analyses. Results of this project will be made available at local, regional, and national meetings as well as by publication in education and discipline-specific journals. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.