Retention of Undergraduates in STEM: Reducing Barriers to Success in Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，为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做出贡献。该项目将直接鼓励、支持和提供资源给学业上有天赋、经济上有困难的学生，让他们在农村多德大学攻读四年制STEM本科学位并取得成功。在五年的获奖期内，该项目将为14名攻读工程、数学和计算机科学本科学位的学生提供最多四年的奖学金。该项目将支持项目的发展，以增强学者对自我效能感和STEM认同感的认识，并确定哪些因素对他们的成功最有贡献。该项目有可能支持不同的毕业生群体，他们将加入STEM劳动力大军或继续接受STEM教育。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。为了实现这一目标，该项目将使用多种方法，侧重于两个具体目标：1)支持队列体验，包括学生参与基础量化STEM课程、研究座谈会、成长心态培训，以及匹配的教师、行业和同行指导；2)开发新的课程途径，加强学生在两年制和四年制STEM学位课程之间的过渡。在他们的整个大学经历中，学者们将有机会接触到被证明能够促进STEM成功并减少留住障碍的循证实践。该项目将使用定量和定性相结合的方法，通过访谈和调查来探索课程组成部分和背景要素如何影响学生的整体成功。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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. This project will directly encourage, support, and provide resources to academically talented, financially disadvantaged students to pursue and succeed in four-year STEM undergraduate degree programs at rural Dordt University. Over the five-year award period, the project will provide up to four-year scholarships to fourteen students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, mathematics, and computer science. The project will support the development of programs that enhance Scholars' perceptions of self-efficacy and STEM identity, and determine which factors most contributed to their success. The project has the potential to support a diverse group of graduates who will join the STEM workforce or pursue further STEM education. The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To achieve this goal, the project will use multiple approaches focused on two specific aims: 1) support cohort experiences, including student involvement in foundational quantitative STEM courses, research colloquia, growth mindset training, and matched faculty, industry, and peer mentoring; and 2) develop new curricular pathways to enhance student transitions between two-year and four-year STEM degree programs. Throughout their college experience, Scholars will have access to evidence-based practices proven to foster STEM success and to reduce barriers to retention. The project will use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods through interviews and surveys to explore how program components and contextual elements impact overall student success. 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.