Improving Professional and Scientific Competencies of Undergraduate Biological Sciences Students to Increase Graduation and Career Readiness

该项目将有助于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。 它将通过支持Ana G大学学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。门德斯-卡罗莱纳校园，一个西班牙裔服务机构在波多黎各。在五年内，该项目将提供为期四年的奖学金，以十二名学生谁将追求科学学士学位的生物学，生物技术和微生物学。该项目旨在通过发展一个学习社区来支持学生的学习成绩，从而提高学者的保留率和毕业率。 此外，它侧重于帮助学者发展专业，研究和其他能力，他们需要在大学和STEM事业取得成功。该项目将分析哪些策略和心理社会因素在支持STEM领域的学生方面最成功。 考虑到几乎所有的学生都是西班牙裔，这个项目有可能扩大生物科学劳动力的参与。这个项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。该项目将提供基于探究社区理论模型的队列经验。 该经验将包括以学生为中心的学术和非学术支持嵌入在一个多层次的系统，连同专业发展和体验式学习活动。 预计队列经验将提高学者的竞争力和准备STEM职业。此外，该项目将产生有关有效做法的新知识，这些做法导致低收入西班牙裔学生坚持STEM。集体个案研究和现象学研究将进行回答以下研究问题：（1）什么心理社会因素促进了低收入西班牙裔STEM学生的学术自我概念（科学身份）的发展？(2)科学身份在多大程度上预测了低收入西班牙裔学生在STEM职业道路上的持久性？(3)奖学金经验的哪些元素有助于低收入西班牙裔学生在STEM职业道路的持久性？项目评价将包括形成性评估和总结性评估，采用包括定量和定性技术的混合方法。研究结果将通过系列研讨会和通讯与学院社区分享。将通过在美国微生物学会本科生教育者会议等专业会议上的演讲和在同行评审的STEM教育期刊上的出版物，向生物科学界进行更广泛的传播。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. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of students at the Universidad Ana G. Mendez - Carolina Campus, a Hispanic Serving Institution in Puerto Rico. Over five years, the project will provide four-year scholarships to twelve students who will pursue Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology, Biotechnology, and Microbiology. This project intends to increase the retention and graduation of the Scholars by developing a learning community to support student academic performance. In addition, it focuses on helping the Scholars develop the professional, research, and other competencies they need to succeed in college and in STEM careers. The project will analyze which strategies and psychosocial factors are most successful at supporting students in STEM fields. Given that nearly all students enrolled in the College are Hispanic, this project has the potential to broaden participation in the biological sciences workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project will provide a cohort experience based on the Community of Inquiry theoretical model. The experience will include student-centered academic and non-academic support embedded in a multi-tiered system, together with professional development and experiential learning activities. It is expected that the cohort experience will increase the scholars’ competitiveness and readiness for STEM careers. In addition, this project will generate new knowledge about effective practices that lead to STEM persistence in low-income Hispanic students. A collective case study and a phenomenological study will be conducted to answer the following research questions: (1) What psychosocial factors promote the development of an academic self-concept (science identity) in low-income Hispanic STEM students? (2) To what extent does science identity predict persistence of low-income Hispanic students in STEM career pathways? (3) What elements of the scholarship experience contribute to the persistence of low-income Hispanic students in STEM career pathways? Project evaluation will include both formative and summative assessments using a mixed-methods approach that includes quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results of the study will be shared with the College community through a seminar series and newsletter. Broader dissemination to the biological sciences community will occur through presentations in professional conferences such as the American Society of Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators and publications in peer-reviewed STEM education 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.