Supporting STEM Undergraduates with Scholarships, Mentoring, and Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Courses

该项目将有助于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。它将通过支持有经济需要的高成就、低收入学生在迪克西州立大学毕业来做到这一点。这所大学是一所开放招生的综合性地区大学，位于犹他州南部。该项目为期四年，将为60名攻读生物、数学、计算机科学、化学和机械工程学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将每年参加约20名学生，并获得两年的奖学金支持。学者们将参与以证据为基础的实践，例如辅导和定期的自习室，这些做法有助于促进学术成功。此外，学者们还将参加一系列名为创新解决方案的研究和原型课程。这些课程将跨越四个学期，让学者及其同龄人沉浸在一个多学科的研究项目中。这一经历旨在帮助他们学习跨STEM学科进行协作，这是在许多当前和未来的STEM职业生涯中取得成功的关键技能。在创新解决方案系列中，学者们将学习研究方法、现代原型技术和技术创业基础，同时以团队合作解决现代现实世界的跨学科挑战。该项目旨在开发一种可复制的模式，其他机构可以用来整合STEM学科和基于团队的学习，以促进本科生STEM学生的学业成功和职业准备。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。该项目的范围还解决了STEM学生在为STEM职业生涯做准备方面面临的两个共同挑战：他们在整个学位课程期间与其他STEM学科隔绝，以及没有足够的机会解决现实世界的问题。为了克服这些挑战，该项目将建立来自生物科学、化学、计算机科学、工程和数学的跨学科队列。创新解决方案课程系列将让这些人参加连续的一学分课程，强调跨学科合作、批判性思维、解决问题和创业精神。作为一种基于项目的学习体验，该系列课程将要求参与者研究、开发、测试和营销现实世界问题的解决方案。课程中选择的主题将是当代的挑战，使学生能够成为科学知识体系的创新贡献者。该项目的研究和评估工作将检验创新解决方案课程系列如何影响学者的学术成功、沟通和协作技能、内容知识、批判性思维和对科学的看法。创新的解决方案课程系列代表了学生研究和参与的可扩展模式。从实施中获得的见解将通过会议报告和期刊出版物向本科生STEM教育界传播。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。

This project will help meet the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with financial need at Dixie State University. This University is an open-enrollment, comprehensive regional university in Southern Utah. Over its four-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 60 full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and mechanical engineering. The Scholars will enter in annual cohorts of about 20 students and receive two years of scholarship support. Scholars will participate in evidence-based practices known to promote academic success, such as mentoring and a regular study hall. In addition, Scholars will participate in a series of research and prototyping courses called Innovative Solutions. These courses will span four semesters and immerse Scholars and their peers in a multidisciplinary research project. This experience is intended to help them learn to collaborate across STEM disciplines, a critical skill for success in many current and future STEM careers. In the Innovative Solutions series, Scholars will learn about research methods, modern prototyping techniques, and technology startup fundamentals, while working in teams to solve modern real-world interdisciplinary challenges. This project intends to develop a replicable model that other institutions can use to integrate STEM disciplines and team-based learning in ways that promote undergraduate STEM student academic success and career preparation. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project’s scope also addresses two common challenges in preparing STEM students for STEM careers: their isolation from other STEM disciplines throughout degree programs and insufficient opportunities for real-world problem solving. To overcome these challenges, the project will establish interdisciplinary cohorts from the biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, and mathematics. The Innovative Solutions Course Series will engage these cohorts in sequential one-credit courses that emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, and entrepreneurship. Designed as a project-based learning experience, the course series will require participants to research, develop, test, and market a solution to a real-world problem. The topics selected in the courses will be contemporary challenges that enable students to be innovative contributors to the scientific body of knowledge. The project’s research and evaluation efforts will examine how the Innovative Solutions Course series affects Scholars’ academic success, communication and collaboration skills, content knowledge, critical thinking, and opinions about science. The Innovative Solutions Course series represents a scalable model for student research and engagement. Insights gained from its implementation will be disseminated to the undergraduate STEM education community through conference presentations and journal 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.