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

这个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。它将通过支持迪克西州立大学（Dixie State University）成绩优异、经济困难的低收入家庭学生的毕业来实现这一目标。这所大学是犹他州南部一所开放招生的综合性地区大学。该项目为期四年，将为60名攻读生物学、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。这些学者每年将进入约20名学生的队列，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，以促进学术成功，如指导和定期自习室。此外，学者们还将参加一系列名为“创新解决方案”的研究和原型设计课程。这些课程将跨越四个学期，使学者和他们的同龄人沉浸在一个多学科的研究项目中。这种经历旨在帮助他们学习跨STEM学科的合作，这是在许多当前和未来的STEM职业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，同时在团队合作中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，其他机构可以使用该模式来整合STEM学科和基于团队的学习，以促进本科STEM学生的学业成功和职业准备。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的范围还解决了为STEM学生准备STEM职业的两个常见挑战：他们在整个学位课程中与其他STEM学科的隔离以及缺乏解决现实问题的机会。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团队。创新解决方案系列课程将为这些学生提供循序渐进的一学分课程，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、测试和推广针对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考察创新解决方案课程系列如何影响学者的学术成就、沟通和协作技能、内容知识、批判性思维和科学观点。创新解决方案课程系列代表了学生研究和参与的可扩展模式。从实施过程中获得的见解将通过会议演讲和期刊出版物传播给本科STEM教育界。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 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.