Retaining Students in STEM on a Commuter Campus with Efficient High Impact Practices

通过高效、高影响力的实践，在通勤校园留住 STEM 学生

• 批准号: 2130058
• 负责人: Joan Remski
• 金额: $ 143.98万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Dearborn
• 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: 2021-10-15 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130058&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Retaining; Students; STEM; Commuter; Campus

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the recruitment, retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at University of Michigan-Dearborn. The project aims to adapt high impact practices and support services, that have been proven to benefit students on residential campuses, to a 100% commuter population composed of a diverse group of students in metro-Detroit. Over its duration, this project will fund scholarships to 56 unique first year, full time students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in the Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, Computer and Information Science, Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Environmental Science, Bioengineering, and Chemistry (ACS Certified). Selected first year students will receive four-year scholarships along with academic and social support, research opportunities, and professional development. These interventions are specifically designed to accommodate the schedules of commuter students, who typically live at home and have commitments that prevent them from participating in high impact practices. The scholars will be placed in 2-3 common classes during their first year to build a cohort community, receiving direct and intentional peer support in their math and chemistry classes. Dedicated mentoring by faculty and professional advising by a trained project coordinator will be provided, while support services that are delivered either remotely or at convenient times, will be available to the scholars throughout their four years on campus. A new, paid undergraduate research experience called “Research Rotations” intended to broaden exposure to research in various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and to foster a sense of belonging will allow students the opportunity to work closely with faculty on a part-time basis, investigating multiple research projects. The overall goal of this project is to increase degree completion in STEM disciplines for low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific objectives include: maintaining a first to second year retention rate of 85%, attaining a 50% four-year graduation rate, and adapting existing, proven interventions for commuter students who have limited time due to outside responsibilities. Cohort building, peer mentoring, active learning, and research experiences have all proven to be effective strategies for increasing retention and graduation rates on traditional, residential campuses. For commuter students, especially those with low income, many of these interventions are inaccessible because of constraints on their time due to financial, work, or family obligations. This project aims to adapt these support structures, introducing more flexible time commitments or remote access, and will study the effectiveness of these adaptations on persistence, student learning, and retention and graduation rates in STEM. An external evaluator will measure the success of the project, determining which interventions and what frequency of participation is correlated with meeting the objectives. The project has the potential to advance understanding of effective and efficient retention strategies for students on commuter campuses, including community colleges. 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 educational experiences of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about best practices for 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，通过支持招聘，保留和毕业的高成就，低收入的学生在迪尔伯恩大学表现出的经济需要。该项目旨在调整高影响力的做法和支持服务，已被证明有利于学生在住宅校园，以100%的通勤人口组成的一个多元化的学生群体在底特律大都会。在其持续时间内，该项目将资助奖学金，以56独特的第一年，全日制学生攻读学士学位的生物科学，生物化学，计算机和信息科学，工程，电气工程，工业和系统工程，机械工程，计算机工程，数学，环境科学，生物工程和化学（ACS认证）。被选中的一年级学生将获得为期四年的奖学金，沿着学术和社会支持，研究机会和专业发展。这些干预措施是专门设计来适应通勤学生的时间表，他们通常住在家里，并有承诺，防止他们参与高影响的做法。这些学者将在第一年被安排在2-3个普通班级，以建立一个队列社区，在他们的数学和化学课程中获得直接和有意的同伴支持。由教师和专业咨询由训练有素的项目协调员将提供专门的指导，而无论是远程或在方便的时候提供的支持服务，将提供给学者在整个四年的校园。一个新的，付费的本科生研究经验，称为“研究轮换”，旨在扩大接触到各种科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域的研究，并培养归属感将使学生有机会与教师密切合作兼职的基础上，调查多个研究项目。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在STEM学科的学位完成率。具体目标包括：保持85%的第一至第二年的留存率，实现50%的四年毕业率，并调整现有的、经过验证的干预措施，以适应由于外部责任而时间有限的通勤学生。队列建设，同伴指导，主动学习和研究经验都被证明是提高传统住宅校园保留率和毕业率的有效策略。对于通勤学生，特别是那些低收入的学生来说，由于经济、工作或家庭义务对他们的时间的限制，这些干预措施中有许多是无法获得的。该项目旨在调整这些支持结构，引入更灵活的时间承诺或远程访问，并将研究这些调整对STEM的持久性，学生学习以及保留和毕业率的有效性。一名外部评估员将衡量项目的成功程度，确定哪些干预措施和参与频率与实现目标相关。该项目有可能促进对通勤校园（包括社区学院）学生有效和高效保留策略的理解。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工作者的教育体验，并为低收入学生的学业成功，保留，转移，毕业和学术/职业道路提供最佳实践知识。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。