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

通过奖学金、辅导和跨学科合作研究课程支持 STEM 本科生

• 批准号: 2030858
• 负责人: Aaron Davis
• 金额: $ 93.34万
• 依托单位: UTAH TECH 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: 2021-02-01 至 2026-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030858&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Supporting; STEM; Undergraduates; Scholarships; Mentoring

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.

该项目将有助于满足受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需求。它将通过支持迪克西州立大学有经济需求的高成就，低收入学生的毕业。该大学是犹他州南部的一所开放式注册，综合区域大学。在四年期间，该项目将为60名全职学生提供奖学金，这些学生正在攻读生物学，数学，计算机科学，化学和机械工程学士学位。学者将参加约20名学生的年度人群，并获得两年的奖学金支持。学者将参加已知促进学术成功的循证实践，例如心理和定期学习厅。此外，学者将参加一系列称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，并在一个多学科研究项目中浸入学者及其同龄人。这种经验旨在帮助他们学习跨STEM学科的合作，这是许多当前和未来STEM职业的成功技能。在创新的解决方案系列中，学者将学习研究方法，现代原型制作技术和技术创业基础知识，同时在团队中工作以解决现代现实世界中的跨学科挑战。该项目旨在开发一种可复制的模型，其他机构可以用该模型以促进本科STEM学生的学术成功和职业准备的方式整合STEM学科和基于团队的学习。该项目的总体目标是增加茎学位的完成，以证明财务需求，使低收入，高成就的大学生的本科生完成。该项目的范围还解决了为STEM学生准备STEM职业的两个共同挑战：它们与学位课程中的其他STEM学科的隔离以及无法实现现实世界中的问题解决的机会。为了克服这些挑战，该项目将从生物科学，化学，计算机科学，工程和数学中建立跨学科人群。创新的解决方案课程系列将与这些同类群体一起参与顺序的一学分课程，这些课程强调跨学科的合作，批判性思维，解决问题和企业家精神。该课程系列设计为基于项目的学习经验，将要求参与者研究，开发，测试和销售解决现实世界问题的解决方案。课程中选择的主题将是当代挑战，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研究创新的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，批判性思维以及对科学的看法。创新的解决方案课程系列代表了学生研究和参与度的可扩展模型。从实施中获得的见解将通过会议演讲和期刊出版物传播到本科STEM教育社区。该项目由NSF在科学，技术，工程和数学计划方面的奖学金提供资金，该计划旨在增加具有证明经济需求的低收入学术才华的学生人数，他们在STEM领域获得了学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工人的教育，并为低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业以及学术/职业途径提供知识。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来通过评估来支持的。