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。 它将通过支持那些表现出经济需求的成绩优异、低收入的学生在私立四年制文理学院晨兴学院 (Morningside College) 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组 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。该项目旨在通过以 STEM 为中心的公民参与活动、教师和同伴指导计划、数学必修课程、本科生研究经验以及与行业合作伙伴的职业导向实习机会为农村 STEM 学生提供支持，从而提高他们的保留率和毕业率。由于学院拥有大量具有农村背景的学生，该项目将探讨该人群中 STEM 学生的招收、坚持和成功问题的复杂性。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的本科生完成 STEM 学位的数量。该项目的具体目标包括：a) 提高 STEM 学者第一年至第二年的保留率和毕业率，b) 增强他们的科学工作场所或研究生院准备程度，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，特别是对于来自农村背景的学生。预期成果是提高 STEM 学生的保留率以及准备对其社区产生积极影响的 STEM 专业人士毕业。在整个五年项目中，外部评估员将通过审查纵向机构评估数据、与项目要素相一致的学生成功和进步衡量标准以及学生态度和感知数据来提供项目反馈。研究结果将通过地区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。该项目由 NSF 科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加具有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生获得 STEM 领域学位的数量。它还旨在改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育，并产生有关低收入学生的学业成功、保留、转学、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。