STEM Scholars: Boosting Persistence and Achievement in STEM for Community College Transfer Students

STEM 学者：提高社区大学转学生在 STEM 方面的毅力和成就

• 批准号: 2030836
• 负责人: Elizabeth Dobbins
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: Samford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030836&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; Scholars; Boosting; Persistence; Achievement

This project will contribute to the regional need for scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with verified financial need at Samford University. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 27 different full-time transfer students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, marine science, math, and computer science. The students will enter in three annual cohorts and each Scholar will receive two to three years of funding. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective support activities, student services, academic and career mentoring, and preparation for summer research and internships. Community college students who transfer to four-year institutions often have a first-semester drop in average grades and are at risk for leaving for leaving without completing a degree. This project will apply research about how to help students recognize and develop their learning strengths. In addition, it will evaluate whether increasing such self-awareness can contribute to academic success and be a generally successful approach for increasing degree completion. A large percent of students who transfer from community colleges are from low income and other populations that are underrepresented in math and science. As a result, this project has significant potential to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn more about how mentoring, framing career goals, and fostering student awareness of their own learning can increase transfer student persistence to graduation.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with verified financial need. There are five specific aims: 1) build on existing relationships to form a shared STEM community between Samford University and local community colleges, and to promote recruitment of transfer students, including from groups underrepresented in STEM; 2) leverage existing student support programs and services at Samford University to maximize student retention and graduation; 3) promote student academic success through training in self-regulation of learning; 4) increase transfer students’ first-semester GPA at Samford to be more similar to their community college GPA; and 5) employ an existing STEM foundations course on career building to maximize the number of students entering STEM careers or graduate education. Many transfer students, including those entering Samford University, struggle with a post-transfer decrease in GPA sometimes called “transfer shock.” To mitigate this decrease, the project features a three-stage “Boost Sequence” of experiences, including a summer metacognition/career development workshop, orientation, and transfer success seminar, and a first semester STEM course to strengthen preparation in programming or chemistry. The Boost Sequence is intended to support both academic performance and metacognitive skill development. The impact of the Boost Sequence will be evaluated by comparing post-transfer GPA and metacognitive skills of Scholars with comparable non-Scholar peers. It is expected that helping students gain skills to control their own learning will increase their academic success as measured by GPA and support persistence to graduation. Project results will be disseminated by website, in publications, and at disciplinary and educational conferences. 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.

该项目将通过支持桑福德大学经核实有经济需要的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进该地区对科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 在五年的时间里，该项目将为27名攻读生物学、生物化学、化学、环境科学、海洋科学、数学和计算机科学学士学位的全日制转学生提供奖学金。学生将进入三个年度队列，每个学者将获得两到三年的资助。 该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动，学生服务，学术和职业指导以及夏季研究和实习准备联系起来，提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。 转学到四年制大学的社区大学学生第一学期的平均成绩往往会下降，并且有可能在没有完成学位的情况下离开。 本计画将应用研究如何帮助学生认识并发展他们的学习优势。 此外，它将评估是否增加这种自我意识可以有助于学术成功，并普遍成功的方法，提高学位完成。 从社区学院转学的学生中有很大一部分来自低收入和其他在数学和科学方面代表性不足的人群。 因此，该项目在扩大STEM领域的参与度方面具有巨大潜力，并更多地了解指导、制定职业目标和培养学生对自己学习的意识如何提高转学学生毕业的坚持性。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就且有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。 有五个具体目标：1）建立现有的关系，形成一个共享的STEM社区之间的桑福德大学和当地社区学院，并促进转学生的招聘，包括从STEM代表性不足的群体; 2）利用现有的学生支持计划和服务在桑福德大学，以最大限度地提高学生的保留和毕业; 3）促进学生的学业成功，通过自我调节学习的培训; 4）提高桑福德转学生第一学期的GPA，使其与社区大学的GPA更相似; 5）采用现有的STEM基础课程，以最大限度地提高进入STEM职业或研究生教育的学生人数。许多转学生，包括那些进入桑福德大学的学生，都在为转学后GPA的下降而挣扎，这种下降有时被称为“转学冲击”。为了缓解这种下降，该项目的特点是三个阶段的经验“提升序列”，包括夏季元认知/职业发展研讨会，定向和转移成功研讨会，以及第一学期的STEM课程，以加强编程或化学的准备。 提升序列旨在支持学业成绩和元认知技能的发展。 将通过比较学者与可比非学者同行的转学后GPA和元认知技能来评估Boost序列的影响。 预计帮助学生获得控制自己学习的技能将增加他们的学业成功（以GPA衡量），并支持坚持到毕业。 项目成果将通过网站、出版物以及在学科和教育会议上传播。 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。