Cohort-Based Interdisciplinary Learning to Increase Retention and Graduation Rates of Undergraduate Students in Science, Technology, and Mathematics

该项目将通过支持经证实有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进国家对有技能的科学家、数学家和技术人员的需求。该项目由位于佛罗里达州中部的一所私立四年制大学Stetson University牵头。这个为期五年的项目将为32名攻读生物化学、化学、计算机科学、环境科学、数学、分子生物学或物理学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。每年将招收两批16名学生，每名学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过让学生参与一种新的STEM丰富的跨学科课程来提高学位完成率。本课程将强调同伴互动、基于项目的学习、社区伙伴关系、解决数学问题的技能、技术素养以及专业写作和演示技能。学者还将有机会获得指导、辅导和职业咨询。招生计划强调了从不同人群中寻找有学术天赋的低收入学生的重要性，从而扩大了获得STEM教育机会的机会。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的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标包括在完成学位后的一年内提高学者的第一到第二年保留率、毕业率和研究生就业或就业。该项目的范围受到最初由布兰迪斯大学开发的一项成功的教学实验的启发，该实验发现，专注于STEM学习的封闭队列模式提高了对学位完成的保留率和坚持性，特别是在STEM中没有公平代表性的群体的学生中。该项目将在传统的STEM课程中与同行STEM队列一起跟踪学者的进展情况。这项分析旨在审查作为紧密联系的群体的成员浏览一系列课程的影响，在这个群体中，所有参与者都积极和有目的地参与共同的跨学科普通教育核心，最终形成一个基于社区的研究项目和顶峰研究经验。将评估创新课程在学习、动机和对完成学位的坚持性方面的有效性，并注意确定与改进学习和保持能力相关的要素。在整个五年期项目中，一名独立的外部评估员将结合在线调查、访谈和参与者数据，审查和记录项目成果、成就和吸取的经验教训。如果项目成功，大学打算在赠款期限之后保持和扩大这一倡议的积极成果，扩大其在大学内的更广泛影响。将通过在区域和国家高等教育会议以及特定学科的专业会议上的发言，分享从该项目中吸取的经验教训，从而将该项目的更广泛影响扩大到大学以外。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 skilled scientists, mathematicians, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with verified financial need. The project is led by Stetson University, a private four-year university in Central Florida. The five-year project will provide scholarships to 32 different full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, math, molecular biology, or physics. Two annual cohorts of 16 students will be recruited, and each student will receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project seeks to enhance degree completion by engaging the student cohorts in a novel STEM-enriched, interdisciplinary curriculum. This curriculum will emphasize peer-interaction, project-based learning, community partnerships, mathematical problem-solving skills, technological literacy, and professional writing and presentation skills. Scholars will also have access to mentoring, tutoring, and career counseling. The recruitment plan emphasizes the importance of identifying academically talented, low-income students from diverse populations, thereby broadening access to STEM educational opportunities.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific aims of the project include increasing Scholars' first to second year retention, graduation rates, and post-graduate placement in graduate studies or the workforce within one year of degree completion. The scope of this project is inspired by a successful pedagogical experiment originally developed at Brandeis University, which found that a closed-cohort model focused on STEM study led to enhanced retention and persistence to degree completion, especially among students from groups that are not equitably represented in STEM. The project will track the progress of Scholars alongside peer STEM cohorts in a traditional STEM curriculum. This analysis will be designed to examine the impact of navigating a series of courses as members of a close-knit cohort in which all participants actively and purposefully engage in a common interdisciplinary general education core that culminates in a community-based research project and a capstone research experience. The effectiveness of the innovative curriculum on learning, motivation, and persistence toward degree completion will be evaluated, with attention to identifying elements that correlate with improvements in learning and retention. Throughout the five-year project, an independent external evaluator will examine and document project outcomes, accomplishments, and lessons learned using a combination of online surveys, interviews, and participant data. If the project is successful, the University intends to sustain and expand the positive outcomes of this initiative beyond the grant term, extending its broader impacts within the University. Lessons learned from the project will be shared through presentations at regional and national higher education conferences, as well as discipline-specific professional conferences, thereby extending the broader impacts of the project beyond the University. 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.