Broadening Participation in STEM Careers through High-Impact Practices

通过高影响力的实践扩大对 STEM 职业的参与

• 批准号: 2030786
• 负责人: Shadi Banitaan
• 金额: $ 99.9万
• 依托单位: University of Detroit Mercy
• 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=2030786&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Broadening; Participation; STEM; Careers; through

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at University of Detroit Mercy, an private, urban university. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 20 unique full-time students pursuing four-year degrees in engineering, mathematics, or computer science. Scholars will enter in two cohorts and receive up to four years of annual scholarship support. The project intends to increase Scholars’ retention, graduation, and employment rates by working with existing on-campus resources and external industrial partners to implement sustainable high-impact practices. Scholars will engage in activities fostering personal, career, and academic development including participation in cohort-building activities, group counseling, multiple industry internships, and peer, faculty, and industry mentoring. The project has the potential to broaden participation in the STEM workforce and address a regional need for a skilled workforce. Results from this project could inform other higher education institutions about how to implement research-proven student retention practices to support diverse students in resource-limited environments.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The project aims to: (1) support students personally and professionally in the pursuit of STEM degrees; (2) improve students’ professional identity and sense of belonging in the STEM community; and (3) increase student interest in STEM careers. Research on successful STEM undergraduate programs has identified high-impact practices, including cohort building, residential communities, mentorship, and research experiences. However, knowledge is limited regarding how to replicate such high-impact practices in small institutions with limited resources that serve heterogeneous student populations. This project will assess the hypothesis that such institutions can emulate these research-proven practices in an effective and sustainable manner. Specifically, the project seeks to explore the relationship between industry internships, group counseling experiences, and non-residential cohort-building impact on students’ STEM identity and success. This project has the potential to provide new insights on the critical support systems most influential in enhancing student persistence and placement in STEM careers for a diverse undergraduate population. Project evaluation will use a mixed-methods approach to analyze process data, student self-assessments, interviews and focus groups, retention/graduation data, and post-graduate career placement rates. The program model and research findings will be disseminated through presentations at STEM education conferences and through publications in conference proceedings and STEM education journals. 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.

该项目将支持底特律梅西大学（一所私立城市大学）保留和毕业有经济需要的成绩优异、低收入的学生，从而满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。该项目将在五年内为 20 名攻读工程、数学或计算机科学四年制学位的独特全日制学生提供奖学金。 学者们将分两批进入，并获得长达四年的年度奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过与现有的校内资源和外部行业合作伙伴合作实施可持续的高影响力实践，提高学者的保留率、毕业率和就业率。学者将参与促进个人、职业和学术发展的活动，包括参与队列建设活动、团体咨询、多个行业实习以及同行、教师和行业指导。该项目有可能扩大 STEM 劳动力的参与，并满足该地区对熟练劳动力的需求。该项目的结果可以为其他高等教育机构提供有关如何实施经过研究证明的学生保留实践的信息，以支持资源有限环境中的多元化学生。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、成绩优异的本科生在 STEM 领域的学位完成率。该项目旨在：(1) 支持学生个人和专业地攻读 STEM 学位； （2）提高学生对STEM社区的职业认同感和归属感； (3) 提高学生对 STEM 职业的兴趣。对成功的 STEM 本科课程的研究已经确定了具有高影响力的实践，包括队列建设、居住社区、指导和研究经验。然而，对于如何在资源有限、为异质学生群体提供服务的小型机构中复制这种高影响力的实践，人们的知识有限。该项目将评估这样的假设：这些机构可以以有效和可持续的方式模仿这些经过研究证明的实践。具体来说，该项目旨在探索行业实习、团体咨询经验和非住宿群体建设对学生 STEM 认同和成功的影响之间的关系。该项目有可能为关键支持系统提供新的见解，这些支持系统对于提高学生在 STEM 职业中的坚持和安置最有影响力，适合不同的本科生群体。项目评估将使用混合方法来分析过程数据、学生自我评估、访谈和焦点小组、保留/毕业数据以及研究生职业安置率。该计划模型和研究成果将通过 STEM 教育会议上的演讲以及会议记录和 STEM 教育期刊中的出版物进行传播。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。