Creating Educational Pathways and Cultivating Leadership at a Hispanic-Serving Regional University to Prepare Undergraduates for STEM Careers in Water Science and Technology Fields

该项目将有助于满足国家对熟练科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 要做到这一点，它将支持高成就，低收入学生在德克萨斯州农工大学圣安东尼奥，一个为期四年的区域，西班牙裔服务机构的保留和毕业。该项目为期五年，将向33名全日制学生提供奖学金。 学者将被选为五个年度队列，包括一年级学生和三年级转学生。 他们将获得一至四年的奖学金支持，因为他们攻读生物学，水资源科学与技术，数学或电子工程与技术学士学位。学者们将与教师研究导师就区域水资源的挑战。 研究项目的例子包括分析得克萨斯州中南部日益城市化的地区的水安全，以及设计敏感流域的低影响恢复和发展。 由于该大学的本科生群体主要是西班牙裔、低收入和第一代，该项目有可能使STEM劳动力多样化，特别是在与水有关的领域。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标包括：1）开发学生教师指导和学习评估工具，以提升学者的学术和职业成功; 2）设计和实施课程/联合课程改进，为学生在水相关领域的有影响力的STEM职业做好准备。 项目调查人员将检验一个假设，即基于区域和社会意义的问题（水科学和技术）的学习活动将促进学者的科学身份，并提高他们的学术成就。项目小组还将调查奖学金选择标准、奖学金期限、同龄人的地位以及导师制对学者学术成就的不同影响。该项目将使用教师导师（实践类型及其持续时间和频率）和学者（学术表现，保留到毕业，研究生入学）的绩效指标进行评估。项目成果将通过全校范围的研讨会、学校教师研讨会、STEM教育和专业会议以及同行评审的出版物提供。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. To do so, it will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, a four-year regional, Hispanic serving institution. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 33 full-time students. The Scholars will be selected as five annual cohorts and include first-year students and third-year transfer students. They will receive one to four years of scholarship support as they pursue bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Water Resources Science and Technology, Mathematics, or Electronic Engineering and Technology. The Scholars will work with faculty research mentors on regional water resource challenges. Examples of research projects include analysis of water security in the increasingly urbanized areas of south-central Texas and design of low-impact restoration and development in sensitive watersheds. Because the University’s undergraduate student population is predominantly Hispanic, low-income, and first-generation, the project has the potential to diversify the STEM workforce, particularly in water-related fields.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project’s specific aims include: 1) developing student-faculty mentorship and learning assessment tools that elevate Scholars’ academic and career success; and 2) designing and implementing curriculum/co-curriculum improvements to prepare students for impactful STEM careers in water-related fields. Project investigators will test the hypothesis that basing learning activities on an issue of regional and social significance (water science and technology) will promote the Scholars’ scientific identity and bolster their academic achievement. The project team will also investigate the differential effects of scholarship selection criteria, length of scholarship, the status of cohorts, and the types of mentorship practices on Scholars’ academic achievement. The project will be evaluated using performance metrics from both faculty mentors (types of practices and their duration and frequency) and Scholars (academic performance, retention to graduation, graduate school matriculation). Project results will be made available through campus-wide seminars, workshops for schoolteachers, STEM education and professional conferences, and peer-reviewed 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.