Biology Education and Research Skills (BEARS) Scholarship Program

该项目将有助于对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，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在肯纳贝克谷社区学院（KVCC）的经济需要。这所公共机构为大约2500名学生提供服务，是缅因州社区学院系统董事会管理的七所社区学院之一。在其5年的时间里，该项目将资助为期一年的奖学金，可续期一年，以三十四（34）独特的全日制高成就低收入学生谁正在追求科学学位在KVCC生物科学副学士。该项目团队将调整和实施各种基于证据和创新的课程和课外策略，以支持S-STEM学者通过三个队列的10，12和12名学生，分别。支持策略将包括队列建设，为每个学者提供一个专门的教师导师，将背诵组件集成到入门级生物学和化学课程，提供生物学研究机会和行业经验，将实验室技能和研究微证书集成到生物学课程，并为夏季实习提供助学金支持。该项目将利用地区高中的现有关系，以确定合格的学生，S-STEM奖学金可以显著提高他们入学并完成两年制生物学学位的能力。项目调查人员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和调查结果，特别是向努力支持低收入STEM学生的其他社区学院传播。为了提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成学位，该项目将追求几个目标。首先是适应，实施和分析以证据为基础的创新课程和课外活动，以支持，保留和毕业与科学学位的副学士项目的生物科学学者。 第二是通过为学生提供特殊的职业准备经验和学术支持来增强区域STEM劳动力，使他们能够通过就业或攻读四年制学位及以后做出贡献。第三是通过实施，测试和调查，通过混合方法项目评估策略，系统地支持学生的学术和劳动力途径在干的知识基础。第四是传播与这些机会的支持，活动和组合相关的成果和发现，这些机会可以促进学生的成功，特别是其他社区学院，致力于支持低收入的STEM学生。调查的方向，其中将包括封闭的队列方法来分析参与者和比较组的结果，将解决文献中的差距，并补充知识基础上的影响力，实用和可持续的战略独特的低收入，学术人才社区大学生，特别是在低人口环境。项目评估旨在实现项目目标，采用定性和定量方法，以深入了解项目的实践如何影响S-STEM学者的学术成功和就业，并确定有效的活动和活动组合，特别是在类似的环境中。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 well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC). This public institution serves approximately 2500 students and is one of seven community colleges which operates under the Maine Community College System Board of Trustees. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund one-year scholarships, renewable for one year, to thirty-four (34) unique full-time high-achieving low-income students who are pursuing an Associate in Science degree in Biological Science at KVCC. The project team will adapt and implement a variety of evidenced-based and innovative curricular and co-curricular strategies to support S-STEM Scholars through three cohorts of 10,12, and 12 students, respectively. Support strategies will include cohort building, providing each scholar with a dedicated faculty mentor, integrating recitation components into introductory-level biology and chemistry courses, providing research opportunities and industry experiences in biology, integrating laboratory skills and research micro-credentials into the biology curriculum, and providing stipend support for summer practicums. The project will leverage existing relationships at regional high schools to identify qualified students for whom S-STEM scholarships could make a significant difference in their ability to enroll in and complete a two-year degree in Biology. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other community colleges striving to support low-income STEM students. To increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to adapt, implement, and analyze evidence-based and innovative curricular and co-curricular activities to support, retain, and graduate with an associate in science degree the project's Biological Science scholars. Second is to enhance the regional STEM workforce by providing special career preparation experiences and academic support for students to prepare them to contribute through employment or pursuit of four-year degrees and beyond. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base by implementing, testing, and investigating through mixed-methods project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and workforce pathways in STEM. And fourth is to disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports, activities, and combinations of these opportunities that promote student success to other institutions, especially other community colleges, working to support low-income STEM students. The directions of investigation, which will include closed cohort methodologies to analyze participant and comparison group outcomes, will address gaps in the literature and supplement the knowledge base on impactful, practical, and sustainable strategies unique to low-income, academically talented community college students, especially in low-population settings. Designed to address project goals, project evaluation is equipped to employ qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insights into how the project's practices affect the academic success and employment of the S-STEM Scholars and to identify the effective activities and combinations of activities for replication, especially in similar settings. 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.