Rocky Mountain Scholars Program: Determining the Impact of Cohort-Based Undergraduate Research

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在科罗拉多州立大学，一个公共的，土地赠款机构证明经济需要的保留和毕业。 该项目为期五年，将为60名攻读数学和/或生物学学士学位的学生提供两年奖学金。这些学生将在教师导师的指导下参与研究经验，以解决引人入胜的现实问题。该项目包括一项研究，将研究不同的方法来指导教师的研究经验如何影响学生的表现，毕业率和职业目标。该项目的更广泛的影响包括进一步发展高能力社区大学生的管道谁过渡到他们的领域的领导角色。该计划的研究成果将被广泛传播，为全国各地的大学教育工作者的广泛利益。 该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。落基山学者项目将与社区学院联盟合作：1）招募四批15名符合经济需要，高能力标准的转学生; 2）为学者提供奖学金; 3）让学者参与教师指导的研究助理; 4）为学者提供以学生参与为中心的支持计划。项目研究计划包括一项功效研究，研究基于群组的指导研究经验是否比个人指导研究经验更有效，包括学习成绩，保留，STEM坚持，进入研究生院的决定以及进入STEM职业的决定。此外，它将调查学生与同龄人和教师导师互动的质量和数量如何影响这些结果。该研究将包括一个混合的方法，包括：1）使用从程序生成的变量以及从机构研究和职业中心的分析部分的数据获得的数据进行统计分析; 2）调查和自我效能分析，以引出学生的程序的功效的看法的整体画面。该项目的成果将发表在STEM教育期刊上，发布在项目网站上，并在会议上发表。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 Colorado State University, a public, Land Grant Institution. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund two-year scholarships to 60 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and/or Biology. These students will participate in research experiences under the direction of faculty mentors to solve engaging, real-world problems. The project includes a research study that will examine how different approaches to faculty-mentored research experiences affect student performance, graduation rates, and career goals. The broader impacts of this project include further developing the pipeline of high-ability community college students who transition into leadership roles in their fields. The research findings of this program will be widely disseminated for the broad benefit of college educators throughout the nation. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The Rocky Mountain Scholars Project will work with an alliance of community colleges to: 1) Recruit four cohorts of 15 transfer students who meet the financial need, high-ability criteria; 2) Provide the Scholars with scholarship funding; 3) Engage Scholars in faculty-mentored research assistantships; and 4) Provide Scholars with a support program centered on student engagement. The project research plan includes an efficacy study examining whether cohort-based mentored research experiences are more effective than individual mentored-research experiences, with regard academic performance, retention, STEM persistence, decision to enter graduate school, and decision to enter STEM careers. Moreover, it will investigate how the quality and quantity of student interactions with cohort mates and faculty mentors influence these outcomes. The research will consist of a mixed methods approach including: 1) statistical analyses using data obtained from program-generated variables as well as data from Institutional Research and the Analytics Section of the Career Center; 2) surveys and self-efficacy analyses to elicit a holistic picture of students' perceptions of the program's efficacy. Results of this project will be published in STEM education journals, posted on the program web site, and presented at conferences. 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.