STEM-relevant Civic Engagement and Service as a Foundation to Prepare Rural Undergraduates for STEM Careers

与 STEM 相关的公民参与和服务是农村大学生为 STEM 职业做好准备的基础

• 批准号: 2030478
• 负责人: Anni Moore
• 金额: $ 99.93万
• 依托单位: MORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030478&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; relevant; Civic; Engagement; Service

This project will contribute to the national need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Morningside College, a private four-year liberal arts institution. This five-year project will provide scholarships to two cohorts of twelve students, to support their attainment of bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, or mathematics. First year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project seeks to increase the retention and graduation rates among rural STEM students by supporting them through STEM-centric civic engagement activities, together with faculty and peer mentoring programs, a mathematics co-requisite course, undergraduate research experiences, and career-oriented externship opportunities with industry partners. Because the College has a large population of students with rural backgrounds, this project will explore the complexity of issues with recruitment, persistence, and success of STEM students from this population.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aims of this project include a) increasing the first- to second-year retention, and graduation rates of STEM scholars, b) enhancing their scientific workplace or graduate school readiness, and c) integrating civic engagement experiences with STEM courses. The research question will investigate how student involvement in science-centric civic engagement activities embedded within STEM courses might contribute to increased retention in STEM disciplines and to increased attitudes of civic responsibility, particularly among students from rural backgrounds. The expected outcomes are increased STEM student retention rates and graduation of STEM professionals who are ready to make a positive impact on their communities. Throughout the five-year project, an external evaluator will provide feedback on the project by reviewing longitudinal institutional assessment data, student success and progression measures aligned with project elements, and student attitude and perception data. The results will be shared through regional and national conferences and participation in events sponsored by organizations such as the Council of Independent Colleges. 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.

该项目将有助于满足国家对熟练科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过支持在晨兴学院（一所私立四年制文科院校）表现出经济需要的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。这个为期五年的项目将为两批12名学生提供奖学金，以支持他们获得生物学、化学、计算机科学或数学学士学位。一年级学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在提高农村STEM学生的保留率和毕业率，通过以STEM为中心的公民参与活动，以及教师和同伴指导计划，数学共同必修课程，本科研究经验和以职业为导向的实习机会与行业合作伙伴一起支持他们。由于该学院有大量农村背景的学生，该项目将探讨从这一人群中招募STEM学生的复杂性，坚持和成功。该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。该项目的具体目标包括：a）提高STEM学者的第一至第二年保留率和毕业率，B）提高他们的科学工作场所或研究生院准备，以及c）将公民参与经验与STEM课程相结合。该研究问题将调查学生参与STEM课程中以科学为中心的公民参与活动如何有助于提高STEM学科的保留率，并提高公民责任的态度，特别是来自农村背景的学生。预期的结果是提高STEM学生的保留率和STEM专业人员的毕业，他们准备对他们的社区产生积极影响。在整个五年项目中，外部评估人员将通过审查纵向机构评估数据，与项目元素一致的学生成功和进步措施以及学生态度和感知数据，提供对项目的反馈。将通过区域和国家会议以及参加独立学院理事会等组织主办的活动来分享成果。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。