Cardinal Science Scholars: Scholarships and Supports to Increase Undergraduate Students' Retention and Graduation in STEM Fields

Cardinal Science Scholars：提供奖学金和支持以提高本科生在 STEM 领域的保留率和毕业率

• 批准号: 2030596
• 负责人: Brigitte Ramos
• 金额: $ 99.93万
• 依托单位: Otterbein College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030596&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cardinal; Science; Scholars; Scholarships; Supports

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Otterbein College, a private liberal arts college. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to twenty-two full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences, biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics. The Scholars will be admitted in two annual cohorts and receive up to four-years of scholarship support. In addition to scholarships, the project will provide Scholars with opportunities to engage in academic and non-academic activities demonstrated to increase retention and graduation in STEM. Activities include participation in a summer immersion orientation program, mentoring by peers and STEM faculty, enrollment in a STEM Seminar course, and opportunities to engage in undergraduate research and internships. The combination of scholarships with participation in student support is intended to contribute to students’ academic and career success and, in turn, to increase the number of highly qualified STEM graduates ready to join the workforce or enroll in graduate studies. The project plans to increase the diversity of students in STEM by enhancing its current recruitment strategies to encourage students from traditionally underserved groups to attend the college. To advance understanding of student success in STEM, this project will examine how students’ beliefs in their ability to succeed in STEM affect their expectations for success and persistence in STEM. The goals of this project are to: (1) recruit academically talented STEM students who are low-income with financial need, including students who are first-generation in college and students from underserved groups; (2) increase scholar engagement and connection to their majors, peers, faculty, and STEM professionals; (3) achieve improved retention, graduation, and STEM graduate school/workforce placement; and (4) foster Scholar success by reducing their beliefs in an intrinsic and fixed intellectual ability in STEM (field-specific ability beliefs) and increasing their expectations for success in their majors. Drawing on Expectancy Value Theory, the project will conduct a mixed methods comparison study to investigate whether students’ intrinsic field-specific ability beliefs in an academic domain relate to their expectations for success, with resulting influence on retention in STEM. It is hypothesized that a decrease in students’ beliefs about their intrinsic field-specific ability will increase their expectations for successful persistence in STEM. The mixed methods evaluation will utilize Stufflebeam’s (2007, 2017) management-oriented approach, which focuses on context, input, process, and product for project improvement and accountability. Project findings will be disseminated through the project website, presentations to local, regional, and national stakeholders, professional meetings, and publications. 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受过良好教育的科学家和技术人员的需求，方法是支持在奥特宾学院--一所私立文科学院--留校和毕业的高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生。在五年的时间里，这个项目将为22名全日制学生提供奖学金，他们正在攻读生物科学、生物化学和分子生物学、化学、工程和物理方面的学士学位。奖学金获得者将以两个年度分组的形式被录取，并获得最长四年的奖学金支持。除了奖学金外，该项目还将为学者提供从事学术和非学术活动的机会，以增加STEM的留校率和毕业率。活动包括参加暑期沉浸指导计划、同行和STEM教师的指导、参加STEM研讨会课程以及参与本科生研究和实习的机会。奖学金与学生资助相结合的目的是为了帮助学生在学术和职业生涯中取得成功，进而增加准备加入劳动力大军或进入研究生学习的高素质STEM毕业生的数量。该项目计划通过加强目前的招生战略来增加STEM学生的多样性，以鼓励来自传统上服务不足的群体的学生进入该学院学习。为了加深对学生在STEM成功的理解，这个项目将调查学生对他们在STEM成功的能力的信念如何影响他们对STEM成功和坚持不懈的期望。这个项目的目标是：(1)招收有经济需要的低收入STEM学生，包括大学第一代学生和来自服务不足群体的学生；(2)增加学者的参与度，并与他们的专业、同行、教员和STEM专业人员建立联系；(3)改善STEM的留校率、毕业率和STEM研究生院/劳动力安置；以及(4)通过减少他们对STEM固有的和固定的智力(特定领域能力信念)的信念，并增加他们对专业成功的期望，来促进学者的成功。利用期望值理论，该项目将进行一项混合方法的比较研究，以调查学生在某个学术领域的固有领域特定能力信念是否与他们对成功的期望有关，从而影响他们在STEM中的留存。假设学生对其固有的特定领域能力的信念的减少将增加他们在STEM中成功坚持的期望。混合方法评估将利用StuffleBeam(2007,2017)的面向管理的方法，该方法侧重于项目改进和责任的背景、投入、过程和产品。项目成果将通过项目网站、向地方、区域和国家利益攸关方的演示、专业会议和出版物进行传播。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。