Promoting Success of Undergraduate STEM Students Through Scholarships, Mentoring, and Curricular Improvements in First-year Mathematics Courses

该项目将有助于满足国家对熟练科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过提供奖学金和其他支持来帮助本科生获得STEM学位。在五年的时间里，该项目将向诺维奇大学的22名学生颁发四年奖学金，诺维奇大学是一所私立军事学院，为学员和平民学生提供服务。 这些学者将攻读生物化学，生物学，化学，数学，神经科学或物理学的学士学位。项目小组还将实施和研究循证的课程和课外活动的效果，如同伴辅导，指导和社区建设。 参加这些活动预计将支持学者毕业，并准备他们进入劳动力或毕业STEM计划。 通过这些努力，该项目预计将有助于满足国家对合格的STEM专业人员在军队和文职劳动力的需求。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生与证明经济需要的STEM学位完成。项目团队认识到，进入大学的学生在数学方面的经验较少，不太可能在STEM学科毕业。基于这些知识，本研究的目的是：1）测量微积分前课程和微积分课程共存的好处，以帮助学生在第一年结束时完成所需的微积分序列; 2）实施和评估一个领导力培训计划，以提高数学课程中同伴导师的沟通和领导能力;以及3）衡量在大学的学术生涯中，学者们在学术、经济和职业支持方面的改善效果。对这些做法的研究将有助于知识基础的有效支持，以增加招聘，保留和STEM专业的毕业，特别是低收入学生。该项目由NSF科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，旨在增加低收入学术天才学生的数量，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 help meet the nation’s need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by providing scholarships and other supports to help undergraduate students earn a STEM degree. Over five-years, the project will award four-year scholarships to twenty-two students at Norwich University, a private military college that serves both Corps of Cadets and civilian students. These Scholars will pursue bachelor's degrees in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, mathematics, neuroscience, or physics. The project team will also implement and study the effects of evidence-based curricular and extracurricular activities, such as peer tutoring, mentoring, and community building. Participation in these activities is expected to support the Scholars to graduation and prepare them to enter the workforce or graduate STEM programs. Through these efforts, the project expects to help meet the national need for qualified STEM professionals in both the military and civilian workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project team recognizes that students who enter college with less experience in mathematics are less likely to graduate with a degree in a STEM discipline. Based on that knowledge, the research aims of this project are to: 1) measure the benefits of corequisite implementation of precalculus and calculus to help students complete the required calculus sequence by the end of their first year; 2) implement and assess a leadership training program to improve the communication and leadership skills of peer tutors in mathematics courses; and 3) measure the effect of improved academic, financial, and career support for the Scholars across their academic career at the University. Research on these practices will contribute to the knowledge base about effective supports for increasing recruitment, retention, and graduation of STEM majors, particularly among low-income students. This project is funded by the NSF 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.