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。它将通过支持安娜·G·门德斯-卡罗莱纳大学校园的学生留校和毕业来做到这一点，该校园是波多黎各的一个拉美裔服务机构。该项目将在五年内为12名攻读生物学、生物技术和微生物学学士学位的学生提供四年奖学金。这个项目旨在通过建立一个学习社区来支持学生的学业表现，以增加学者的留存率和毕业率。此外，它还专注于帮助学者们发展他们在大学和STEM职业生涯中取得成功所需的专业、研究和其他能力。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。鉴于该学院招收的几乎所有学生都是拉美裔，该项目有可能扩大生物科学工作者的参与。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完成STEM学位。该项目将提供基于调查共同体理论模型的队列经验。该体验将包括嵌入多层次系统的以学生为中心的学术和非学术支持，以及专业发展和体验式学习活动。预计队列经验将增加学者的竞争力和为STEM职业生涯做好准备。此外，该项目将产生有关有效做法的新知识，这些做法有助于在低收入拉美裔学生中坚持STEM。本研究将通过集体个案研究和现象学研究来回答以下研究问题：(1)哪些心理社会因素促进了低收入拉美裔STEM学生学业自我概念(科学认同)的发展？(2)科学认同在多大程度上预测了低收入拉美裔学生在STEM职业道路上的持久性？(3)奖学金经历中的哪些因素对低收入拉美裔学生在STEM职业道路上的持久性有贡献？项目评价将采用包括定量和定性技术的混合方法，既包括形成性评估，也包括总结性评估。研究结果将通过研讨会系列和时事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工作者会议等专业会议上发表演讲，以及在同行评议的STEM教育期刊上发表文章，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. 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.