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

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的优秀低收入学生的保留和毕业，为满足国家对熟练科学家、数学家和技术人员的需求做出贡献。该项目由斯泰森大学领导，这是一所位于佛罗里达州中部的四年制私立大学。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，每位学生将获得最多四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过让学生参与一个新颖的stem丰富的跨学科课程来提高学位的完成率。本课程将强调同伴互动、基于项目的学习、社区伙伴关系、数学解决问题的能力、技术素养以及专业的写作和演讲技巧。学者们还将获得指导、辅导和职业咨询。该招聘计划强调了从不同人群中识别有学术天赋的低收入学生的重要性，从而扩大STEM教育机会。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标包括提高学者第一年到第二年的保留率、毕业率，以及研究生在研究生学习或毕业后一年内的就业机会。该项目的范围受到布兰迪斯大学最初开发的一项成功的教学实验的启发，该实验发现，专注于STEM学习的封闭队列模型可以提高学生的保留率和完成学位的持久性，特别是来自STEM中没有公平代表的群体的学生。该项目将跟踪传统STEM课程中学者与同行STEM群体的进展情况。本分析旨在考察作为紧密联系的群体成员的一系列课程的影响，其中所有参与者积极而有目的地参与共同的跨学科通识教育核心，最终以社区研究项目和顶点研究经验告终。将评估创新课程在学习、动机和坚持完成学位方面的有效性，并注意识别与学习和保留方面的改进相关的因素。在整个为期五年的项目中，一个独立的外部评估者将使用在线调查、访谈和参与者数据的组合来检查和记录项目成果、成就和经验教训。如果项目成功，大学打算在资助期限届满后继续维持和扩大这一倡议的积极成果，扩大其在大学内的广泛影响。从项目中吸取的经验教训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来分享，从而将项目的更广泛影响扩大到大学以外。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 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.