Pathway to Professions in the Biosciences: A Community College and University Partnership for STEM Degree Completion

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持在大湾社区学院和新罕布什尔州大学表现出经济需要的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。 该项目为期五年，将为从大湾社区学院转到新罕布什尔州大学的30名学生提供两年奖学金。 奖学金将在生命科学理学学士学位课程的最后两年为学生提供支持。 该项目旨在通过将奖学金支持与其他支持机制（包括导师制、以专业发展为中心的学术学习社区以及与学生职业兴趣相关的体验式学习组成部分）联系起来，提高学生对生命科学的坚持性。 该项目还将进一步了解不同的学习经历和支持如何影响低收入社区大学生的自我效能和职业决策。 该项目有可能有助于改善国家生物科学企业和增加生物科学劳动力的多样性。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就本科生在STEM领域的学位完成率。 该项目旨在增加在社区学院一级完成副学士学位、进入四年制大学并完成生命科学领域学士学位的学生人数。 自我效能感和专业发展经验被认为可以提高学生对STEM学位的坚持性。 然而，很少有人知道这些因素如何影响转学生，特别是那些来自非传统学术背景的学生。 本研究将探讨本研究活动如何影响学生自我效能感的发展。 具体而言，本项目有可能促进了解专业学习社区和正式的指导如何影响社区大学转学生的学业自我效能感，他们对与学位完成和职业目标相关的社会支持的看法，以及留学经历如何影响低收入学生的学业自我效能感和职业目标。 该项目将使用自适应，形成性和总结性的混合方法进行评估，其中包括访谈和调查的信息，以及从学生，教师和领导团队收集的定量数据。 该项目的成果将通过三种机制提供：1）在当地的大学和社区学院社区内，在当地年度研究会议上，并通过邀请研讨会; 2）通过研讨会，网络研讨会活动和年度聚会，通过北方新英格兰的STEM教育研究小组进行区域性研究;以及3）在全国范围内，通过在会议上的演讲，如年度美国学院和大学协会改造本科STEM教育会议，向更广泛的STEM教育研究界，NSF S-STEM会议结果将提交发表在同行评审的期刊，如生命科学教育和生物学教育杂志。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 and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Great Bay Community College and the University of New Hampshire. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide two-year scholarships to 30 students who transfer from Great Bay Community College to the University of New Hampshire. The scholarships will support the students during the final two years of their Bachelor of Science degree programs in life sciences. The project aims to increase student persistence in life sciences by connecting scholarship support with other support mechanisms including mentorship, an academic learning community centered on professional development, and an experiential learning component related to students' career interests. The project will also further knowledge about how different learning experiences and supports affect the self-efficacy and career decisions of low-income community college students. This project has the potential to contribute to improving the national bioscience enterprise and increasing the diversity of the bioscience workforce.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The project aims to increase the number of students who complete their associate degree at the community college level, matriculate to the four-year university, and complete their bachelor's degree in a life sciences field. Self-efficacy and professional development experiences are known to increase student persistence in STEM degrees. However, little is known about how these factors affect transfer students, especially those from non-traditional academic backgrounds. This project will investigate how the activities of this project affect development of students' self-efficacy. Specifically, this project has the potential to advance the understanding about how a professional learning community and formal mentorship influence community college transfer students' academic self-efficacy, their perceptions of the social supports related to degree completion and their career goals, and how a study abroad experience influences low-income students' academic self-efficacy and career goals. This project will be evaluated using adaptive, formative and summative mixed-methods with information from interviews and surveys, and quantitative data collected from students, faculty, and the leadership team. Results of this project will be made available through three mechanisms: 1) locally within the University and Community College communities at local annual research conferences, and through invited seminars; 2) regionally through STEM education research groups in northern New England through seminars, webinar events, and annual gatherings; and 3) nationally, to the broader STEM education research community through presentations at conferences such as the annual Association of American Colleges and Universities Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education meeting, and the NSF S-STEM conference. Results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journal such as Life Sciences Education and the Journal of Biology Education. 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.