Connecting Science Identity to STEM Success at a Rural Primarily Undergraduate Institution Propelled by an Evidence-Based First Year Experience

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在印第安纳州卫斯理大学证明经济需要的保留和毕业。 在七年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读生物化学、生物学、化学或物理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得四年奖学金。学生将有意识地支持以STEM为导向的最佳实践，以提高一年级学生的保留率和学位完成率。 该计划的支持开始于两个学期的第一年经验（FYE）课程，通过同伴指导，建立愿景的行业实地考察，高年级同学的研究会谈和基于背景的课程，有意在一年级学生中发展科学身份，这些课程与所有STEM专业的第一年课程中具有挑战性的共同概念症结并行，普通化学。学生将被介绍给本科研究，并参加会议，介绍他们的工作，并在四年内从事更大的研究社区。绘制这些最佳实践的影响，如导师制，研究和基于背景的学习对农村主要本科院校科学身份的发展有可能为未来的努力提供信息，以提高学生的保留率，毕业率和进入STEM劳动力队伍的愿望。 更好地理解脚手架，在一年级学生及以后的科学身份增长可以实施为所有本科STEM课程的可扩展STEM FYE途径。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入的STEM学位完成，表现出经济需求的高成就本科生。IWU S-STEM计划将招募和支持24名生物化学，生物学，化学或物理学专业的一年级学生，以形成三个STEM学者群体。 将实施最佳实践学生支持，以提高学生的保留和成功在第一年完成学位。过渡到本科STEM专业的结果在大一是STEM专业的最高消耗点。一个学生的科学身份感和自我效能感的理解，预测学生的保留和成功，但这些措施的干预措施的影响值得进一步研究。该项目将研究学生干预措施对科学身份和自我效能感发展的有效性，并将促进对这些措施如何与STEM专业的学生保留和成功相关的理解。该项目的成果将与更广泛的STEM教育界分享。 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 Indiana Wesleyan University. Over its seven-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, or physics. First year students will receive four-year scholarships. Students will be intentionally supported with STEM-oriented best practices to increase first year student retention and degree completion. The program support begins with a two semester first year experience (FYE) course to intentionally develop science identity in first year students through peer mentorship, vision-building industry field trips, research talks from upperclassmen peers and context-based curriculum paralleling common conceptual sticking points in a challenging first year course taken by all STEM majors, General Chemistry. Students will be introduced to undergraduate research and attend conferences to present their work and engage the greater research community over four years. Mapping the impact of these best practices such as mentorship, research, and context-based learning on the development of science identity at a rural primarily undergraduate institution has potential to inform future efforts to increase student retention, graduation, and desire to enter the STEM workforce. Better understanding of scaffolding that grows science identity in first year students and beyond can be implemented as a scalable STEM FYE pathway for all undergraduate STEM programs.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The IWU S-STEM program will recruit and support 24 first year students majoring in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, or physics to form three STEM scholar cohorts. Best practice student supports will be implemented to increase student retention and success during the first year on to degree completion. Transitioning to an undergraduate STEM major results in the freshman year being the point of highest attrition for STEM majors. A student’s sense of science identity and feelings of self-efficacy are understood to predict student retention and success, however the impact of interventions on these measures merits further study. This project will study the effectiveness of student interventions on the development of science identity and feelings of self-efficacy and will advance the understanding of how these measures correlate with student retention and success in STEM majors. The results of this project will be shared with the broader STEM education community. 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.