Democratizing Access to the Emerging Interdisciplinary Tech Workforce for Low-Income Science Majors

该项目将为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做出贡献，支持坦普尔大学科学与技术学院(CST)优秀的低收入学生留校和毕业。特别是，该项目打算提供96个奖学金，支持32个独特的奖学金获得者，以支持完成STEM的化学、生物、物理、数学、地球和环境科学学位，同时辅修信息科学。该项目团队的努力背后的驱动力是使以技术为重点的STEM劳动力队伍中的经济机会民主化，使成绩优异的低收入学生能够获得经济机会。缺乏信息科学方面的知识和技能可能会成为低收入学生劳动力竞争力和经济流动性的障碍。为了克服这一障碍，项目负责人确定了有意的、多学科的学术途径，为成绩优异的低收入学生提供专注于他们选择的主要STEM专业的能力，如生物学或地球科学，并结合信息科学的专业学习。这种综合的学术途径符合科学家在信息科学方面拥有更多知识和技能的新需求，通过将计算解决方案应用于大型数据集来收集、表示、分析和发现有意义的模型。该项目假设，通过以队列为基础的课程和联合课程活动，提供财政支持，探索STEM和信息科学综合学习的途径，最终可以提高低收入学生获得STEM学位和进入劳动力市场的机会。通过这个项目，研究人员将开发和实施一个示范项目，支持来自低收入背景的学生完成具有明确学术路径的学术学位课程，以促进本科生STEM专业的学位获得，并通过信息科学的综合学习增加价值。该方法建立在循证实践的基础上，这些实践已被证明对个别学生的结果产生了积极影响；计划要素旨在强调跨学科的联系，整合内容知识的社会相关应用，与专业实践相联系，并通过服务性学习项目发展身份和社区。此外，该计划还旨在扩大代表不足的群体在计算方面的参与，计划要素实施基于证据的方法，促进STEM教育的多样性、公平性和包容性。该项目将促进对STEM专业学生选择综合学业道路的看法的了解，以及对完成这类道路的STEM学生的学术和劳动力准备的影响。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 in the College of Science and Technology (CST) at Temple University. In particular the project intends to provide 96 scholarships to support 32 unique scholarship recipients to support the completion of STEM degrees in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and earth and environmental sciences coupled with a minor in information science. The driving force behind the project team's efforts is to democratize access to economic opportunities in the technology-focused STEM workforce for high-achieving, low-income students. Lack of knowledge and skills in information sciences can be a barrier to workforce competitiveness and to economic mobility for low-income students. To overcome this barrier, the project leaders have identified intentional, multidisciplinary academic pathways that provide high-achieving, low-income students with the ability to focus on their chosen primary STEM major, such as biology or earth science, in combination with specialized study in information science. Such integrated academic pathways align with emerging needs for scientists to have more knowledge and skills in information science to collect, represent, analyze, and discover meaningful models by applying computational solutions to large data sets. The project hypothesizes that providing financial support to explore pathways for integrated study of STEM and information science, supported through cohort-based curricular and co-curricular activities, can ultimately lead to higher STEM degree attainment and workforce entry among low-income students. Through this project, researchers will develop and implement a model program that supports students from low-income backgrounds to complete academic degree programs with clearly identified academic pathways that promote degree attainment for undergraduate STEM majors and add value through integrated study of information science. The approach builds on evidence-based practices that have been shown to positively impact individual student outcomes; program elements are designed to emphasize connections across disciplines, integrate socially relevant applications of content knowledge, connect to professional practices, and develop identity and community through service-learning projects. Additionally, the program is also designed to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in computing, with program elements that implement evidence-based approaches for diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM education. The project will advance knowledge about the perceptions of STEM majors in choosing to pursue integrated academic pathways, as well as the impact on academic and workforce preparation for STEM students who complete such pathways. 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.