Scholarships and Learning Community to Build Academic Momentum in STEM Students who Transfer from a Community College to a Four Year University

奖学金和学习社区为从社区学院转学到四年制大学的 STEM 学生建立学术动力

• 批准号: 1930150
• 负责人: Paul Laybourn
• 金额: $ 274.17万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1930150&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholarships; Learning; Community; Build; Academic

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. Specifically, this project will support students at Front Range Community College and Colorado State University. Front Range Community College is the largest community college in Colorado. It has a diverse student body and is the largest source of transfer students to Colorado State University. Over the project's five-year duration, the project will provide up to four years of scholarship support for at least 150 STEM students. These students will pursue associate's and bachelor's degrees in mathematics, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, or computer sciences. A team of faculty and student success coaches will contribute to Scholars' success by: implementing Scholars' onboarding into a math and science learning community at both institutions; developing Scholars' knowledge and skills; ensuring transfer continuity through curriculum mapping and articulation; providing hands-on experiences; and mentoring the Scholars. This project is significant because it will integrate national best practices for improving student retention, transfer, and degree completion that are being adopted by community colleges nationwide. Broader impacts of this project include narrowing of educational gaps in Colorado and increasing the diversity of students completing STEM degrees. Its intellectual merit lies in a research study that will evaluate the use of near-term measures of student success (academic momentum) to predict and support long-term success. 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 increase the number of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College who complete a STEM associate degree, transfer to Colorado State University, and complete a STEM baccalaureate degree. The specific aims are: 1) optimizing enrollment and persistence of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College Math and Science Career and Academic Community; 2) increasing Scholar's STEM engagement, knowledge, and skills; and 3) improving continuity and articulation in the transfer process to increase student success. This project's research component will generate new knowledge about best practices for supporting baccalaureate degree completion of STEM students who begin their education at a two-year colleges. The research project will measure the effect of scholarships and the project's activities on student self-efficacy, science identity, and academic momentum. The project expects that academic momentum metrics will provide actionable data that may be better suited for measuring success of interventions than retention/completion metrics. An external evaluator will measure the extent of implementation of the project's activities, who participated, and if the project's objectives are met using formative and summative mixed-method measures. This project's outcomes and research findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, posted on websites such as the Department of Education's "What Works Clearinghouse," and presented at regional and national conferences. 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.

该项目将通过支持表现出经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，满足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。具体来说，该项目将支持Front Range社区学院和科罗拉多州立大学的学生。Front Range社区学院是科罗拉多州最大的社区学院。它拥有多元化的学生群体，是科罗拉多州立大学转校生的最大来源。在为期五年的项目期间，该项目将为至少150名STEM学生提供长达四年的奖学金支持。这些学生将攻读数学、生命科学、物理科学、工程或计算机科学的副学士和学士学位。一个由教师和学生成功教练组成的团队将通过以下方式为学者的成功做出贡献：在两所大学的数学和科学学习社区中实施学者的入职；发展学者的知识和技能；通过课程映射和衔接确保转学的连续性；提供实践经验；并指导奖学金获得者。该项目意义重大，因为它将整合全国社区学院正在采用的提高学生留校率、转学率和学位结业率的最佳做法。该项目的更广泛影响包括缩小科罗拉多州的教育差距，增加完成STEM学位的学生的多样性。它的智力价值在于一项研究，该研究将评估学生成功的近期衡量标准（学业势头）的使用，以预测和支持长期成功。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。具体来说，该项目旨在增加来自Front Range社区学院的低收入，有学术天赋的学生的数量，他们完成STEM副学士学位，转学到科罗拉多州立大学，并完成STEM学士学位。具体目标是：1)优化来自Front Range社区大学数学与科学职业和学术社区的低收入、有学术天赋的学生的入学率和持久性；2)提高学者在STEM领域的参与度、知识和技能；3)提高转学过程的连续性和清晰度，以提高学生的成功。该项目的研究部分将产生关于最佳实践的新知识，以支持在两年制大学开始教育的STEM学生完成学士学位。该研究项目将测量奖学金和项目活动对学生自我效能感、科学认同和学术动力的影响。该项目预计，学术动量指标将提供可操作的数据，可能比保留/完成指标更适合衡量干预措施的成功。外部评估者将度量项目活动的实施程度，谁参与了，以及是否使用形成性和总结性混合方法度量项目的目标得到满足。该项目的成果和研究成果将提交到同行评议的期刊上发表，发布在教育部的“What Works Clearinghouse”等网站上，并在地区和国家会议上发表。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。