Bridging the STEM Gap in Appalachia: Engaging with students to iteratively improve faculty practices in support of student success

该项目将通过支持西弗吉尼亚州费尔蒙州立大学(FSU)表现出的经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。该项目将通过财政援助以及课程和联合课程支持相结合的方式为学生提供支持。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为该大学STEM专业的十八(18)个独特的高成就、低收入本科生提供奖学金。其他支持将包括为即将入学的学生举办STEM训练营、一年级STEM研讨会课程、获得研究经验的机会、STEM生活和学习社区的可用性，以及与教职员工和同行导师的定期互动。职业介绍计划将纳入其中，并将包括与当地和区域行业的网络研讨会。将为教职员工和同行导师制定专业发展计划。招生工作将包括将重点放在阿巴拉契亚的一个15个县的地区，同时将伴随着创新和灵活的两级遴选程序，以便识别可能没有达到与高中成功相关的传统指标的低收入、高天赋的STEM学生。为了增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的留校率和STEM学位完成率，该项目将实现几个目标。首先是调整和实施循证课程和共同课程战略，以系统地支持学生的学业和职业成功之路。第二，通过项目评估实施、测试和研究一种创新模式，以招收和挑选有才华的STEM学生，否则基于传统的高中成功标准，这些学生可能会被忽视。三是为知识库做贡献，以帮助指导其他大学成功实施类似的项目。四是将项目与当地产业相结合，改善职业准备和就业安置，直接满足区域需求。第五是与行业、高中和其他大学建立网络联系，以传播与项目挑战和成功有关的成果和发现，特别是向其他致力于支持低收入STEM学生的机构传播。混合方法评估的洞察力和结果将产生新的知识，即项目的支持干预措施或干预措施的组合的哪些方面对学生的留住、参与、学业表现和总体成功最有效。调查路线将解决文献中的空白，并向其他寻求通过课程和联合课程干预相结合的方式支持学生的高等教育专业人员提供信息，特别是针对在STEM中代表性不足的农村地区的学生。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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 Fairmont State University (FSU) in West Virginia. The project will support students through a combination of financial assistance and curricular and co-curricular support. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to eighteen (18) unique high-achieving, low-income undergraduate majors in the STEM disciplines at the University. Additional support will include a STEM bootcamp for incoming students, a first-year STEM seminar course, opportunities for research experiences, STEM living and learning community availability, and regular interactions with faculty and peer mentors. Career placement initiatives will be incorporated and will include networking seminars with local and regional industries. A professional development program will be put in place for faculty and peer mentors. Recruiting efforts will include a focus on a 15-county region in Appalachia that will be accompanied by an innovative and flexible two-tier selection process to allow for the identification of low-income, highly-talented STEM students who might not have met traditional metrics related to high school success. To increase retention and STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to adapt and implement evidence-based curricular and co-curricular strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways to success. Second is to implement, test, and study through project evaluation an innovative model for recruiting and selecting highly-talented STEM students who might otherwise go unnoticed based on traditional metrics for high school success. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base to help guide other colleges to implement similar programs successfully. Fourth is to integrate the project with local industries to improve career preparation and job placement, directly filling needs in the region. And fifth is to incorporate a networking process with industry, high schools, and other colleges to disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, in particular to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students. Insights and outcomes from a mixed methods evaluation will generate new knowledge on which aspects of the project's support interventions, or combination of interventions, are most effective for retention, engagement, academic performance, and overall success of students. The lines of investigation will address gaps in the literature and inform other higher-education professionals seeking to support students with a combination of curricular and co-curricular interventions, especially for students from rural regions who are underrepresented in STEM. 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.