Building an Academic Community of Engineering Scholars to Increase Persistence and Transfer into Four-year Engineering and Computer Science Degree Programs

该项目将通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留，毕业和转移，证明经济需要，促进国家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。该项目将支持学生在湖县学院，这是一个社区学院以及西班牙裔服务机构。在五年的时间里，该项目将为125名正在攻读理学副学士学位并打算转学并完成工程或计算机科学学士学位的学生提供长达三年的奖学金。每年将向转学的学生颁发五个额外的大学奖学金。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来来提高学生的持久性，包括学术咨询计划，辅导和学习课程，makerspace活动，实习，以及招收学者作为微积分，工程图形学和工程课程介绍的特殊部分的队列。这些活动的核心是引入巴克斯特创新实验室（创客空间/Fab实验室）作为工程和计算机科学文化中心。 由于莱克县学院的学生人数偏少，因此该项目有可能扩大工程和计算机科学领域的参与。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。有两个具体目标：1）研究湖县学院加强社区建设的有效性; 2）通过研究两者如何影响自我效能感和归属感，探索体验式学习和实习的影响。关于自我效能感和学生成功的研究已经进行了相当多的研究。 然而，关于创客空间环境和/或社区学院环境如何影响自我效能和学生成功的数据很少。该项目有可能帮助填补这些研究空白。该项目将进行教育评估和项目评估，以确定促进学生成功的关键干预措施，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、在国家会议上的介绍以及在同行评审期刊和行业期刊上的出版物广泛传播给各种受众。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，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, graduation, and transfer of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The project will support students at the College of Lake County, which is a community college as well as a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide up to three-year scholarships to 125 students who are pursuing associate of science degrees and who intend to transfer and complete a bachelor's degree in engineering or computer science. Five additional university-level scholarships per year will be awarded to students as they transfer. The project aims to increase student persistence by linking scholarships with effective support activities, including academic advising programs, tutoring and study sessions, makerspace activities, internships, and enrolling Scholars as cohorts in special sections of Calculus, Engineering Graphics, and Introduction to Engineering courses. Central to these activities is the introduction of the Baxter Innovation Lab (Makerspace/Fab Lab) as the engineering and computer science cultural hub. Because the College of Lake County has a high population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in the engineering and computer science fields.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are two specific aims: 1) study the effectiveness of enhanced community building at the College of Lake County; and 2) explore the impact of experiential learning and internships by examining how both affect self-efficacy and sense of belonging. Considerable research has been conducted about self-efficacy and student success. However, little data are available about how a makerspace environment and/or a community college context affect self-efficacy and student success. This project has the potential to help fill some of these research gaps. The project will conduct educational assessment and program evaluation to identify key interventions that promote 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 to a variety of audiences through digital outlets, presentations at national conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed and trade 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.