STEM Scholars: Supporting Graduation of Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics Majors by Developing Their STEM Ethical Knowledge and Identity as Scientists

该项目将通过支持玛丽安大学高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，为国家对高技能科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的需求做出贡献。 这所大学是位于印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯的一所天主教和方济会大学。该项目为期五年，旨在为至少15名攻读生物、化学或数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将被招募在两个一年级学生的队列，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持。 该项目将为学者提供创新的支持服务，重点是加强他们对道德在STEM中的作用的理解，并建立他们作为STEM专业人员的身份。该项目旨在促进对道德教育和身份建设活动在保留和毕业STEM学生中的价值的理解。 它还计划使当地STEM劳动力多样化，并帮助满足STEM劳动力需求。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成率，并证明经济需要。一个已知的贡献者保留在干是学生的自我认同的发展STEM专业人员。 然而，伦理教学对职业认同的有效性和影响是STEM教育研究的一个方面。玛丽安大学将从当地天主教学校，公立学校和社区学院招收学生，以研究早期职业道德课程和旨在建立科学家身份的STEM活动的有效性。 该项目将由两个研究问题指导：1）如何引入负责任的研究原则和案例研究的后续评估影响学生的能力，认识和应用这些原则到各种研究方案，并就自己的研究项目做出道德上合理的决定？ 2)围绕STEM专业的身份问题的有意讨论在多大程度上影响了他们在整个本科生涯中作为“科学家”的自我认同，以及这些学生在多大程度上引用了身份发展的特定方面来促进他们在STEM中的坚持？预计项目成果包括，至少80%的学者将留在STEM专业进入他们的第三学期，至少70%将与STEM专业毕业，所有毕业的学者将被安置到STEM就业或研究生教育。该项目将由外部评估员根据学生的学术和职业成果，学生对自己的看法，以及参与该项目的价值进行评估。 它还将把这些成果综合成经验教训，以推广和扩大该项目。研究人员和参与的学生将通过同行评审的出版物和区域研究场所传播项目结果。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for highly skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at Marian University. This University is a Catholic and Franciscan university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over its five-year duration, the project aims to fund scholarships to at least 15 full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, or mathematics. The Scholars will be recruited in two cohorts of first-year students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project will provide Scholars with innovative support services focused on strengthening their understanding of the role of ethics in STEM and building their identities as STEM professionals. The project aims to advance understanding of the value of ethics instruction and identity-building activities in retaining and graduating STEM students. It also plans to diversify the local STEM workforce and help to meet STEM workforce needs.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. A known contributor to retention in STEM is the development of students’ self-identity as STEM professionals. However, the efficacy and impacts of ethics instruction on professional identify are scarcely researched aspects of STEM education. Marian University will recruit students from local Catholic schools, public schools, and community colleges to study the effectiveness of early-career ethics coursework and STEM activities designed to build identity as a scientist. The project will be guided by two research questions: 1) How does the introduction of Responsible Conduct of Research principles and subsequent evaluation of case-studies impact a student’s ability to recognize and apply these principles to various research scenarios and make ethically sound decisions regarding their own research projects? 2) To what extent does the intentional discussion of identity issues surrounding STEM majors affect their self-identification as “scientists” throughout their undergraduate career and to what extent do these students cite specific aspects of identity development as contributing to their persistence in STEM? Expected project outcomes include that at least 80% of the Scholars will remain in STEM majors into their third semester, at least 70% will graduate with a STEM major, and all graduating Scholar will be placed into STEM employment or graduate education. The project will be evaluated by an external evaluator based on student academic and career outcomes, student perceptions of themselves, and the value of participation in the project. It will also synthesize these results into lessons learned for replicating and scaling the project. Project findings will be disseminated by investigators and participating students through peer-reviewed publications and regional research venues. 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.