Exploring STEM Identity through a Science Learning Interdisciplinary Community Expansion Scholarship Program

该项目将通过支持匹兹堡大学格林斯堡分校（匹兹堡格林斯堡分校）保留和毕业那些成绩优异、有经济需要的低收入学生，满足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。皮特格林斯堡是匹兹堡大学的一个地区校区，为来自宾夕法尼亚州农村地区的大部分学生提供服务。该项目为期六年，将为 48 名攻读生物学、生物化学、化学或应用数学学士学位的独特全日制学生提供奖学金。传统学生和转学生都将获得奖学金以帮助他们的教育。在一年级迎新活动、一年级研讨会和科学学习社区期间，他们将有机会在专业内外的团队中工作。在这些经历中建立的早期联系为学生提供了增强的支持系统，以完成更具挑战性的高级课程，以及研讨会、研究项目和向公众展示研究成果，这些也将得到赠款的鼓励和帮助。该项目还将支持旨在提高 STEM 一年级学生保留率的课程改进。该项目旨在吸引当地农村社区的成员（无论是传统学生还是转学生）通过额外的支持结构来推进他们的教育。最终，该项目将评估学生如何看待他们与学科的联系，以及这如何影响他们校内和校外的参与。该项目的主要目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的本科生完成 STEM 学位的程度。通过科学学习跨学科社区扩展 (SLICE) 项目探索 STEM 身份将通过追求多个目标来增强学生技能并建立社区联系。首先是利用群体和其他支持来消除障碍并在校园内建立真正的同伴联系。其次是扩大 SLICE 学者的科学素养、沟通和自我效能。第三是鼓励 SLICE 学者的职业探索，并在校外环境中培养积极的职业身份探索。第四是培养 SLICE 学者通过高级顶点研究经验开发、分析和有效交流研究成果的能力。第五，提高 SLICE 学者的时间管理能力、决策能力、战略规划和解决问题的能力。该项目的主要研究兴趣集中在跨学科学习社区的建设，调查其对学生在科学界中的身份认知的影响，与同龄人和教师建立真正的联系以及这如何影响 STEM 身份，以及学生如何在其领域内外发展专业知识。先前的研究发现，通过减少初次转移到新地点时所经历的认知失调，可以对学生保留率产生积极的影响。本研究旨在了解这些方法是否能有效吸引来自农村社区的学生，而目前文献中尚未对这一学生群体进行充分报道。该项目的评估将使用两种主要方法进行：（a）评估学生的保留率和毕业率，以及（b）使用准实验设计方法定性和定量地编码学生评估和项目规划调查。结果的传播将遵循最佳实践，并结合使用网站、与当地社区大学举行的年度 STEM 教员会议、在当地和区域会议上的演示以及最终在同行评审期刊上发表。该项目由 NSF 科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加具有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生获得 STEM 领域学位的数量。它还旨在改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育，并产生有关低收入学生的学业成功、保留、转学、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 the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (Pitt-Greensburg). Pitt-Greensburg is a regional campus of the University of Pittsburgh that serves a high percentage of students from rural areas of Pennsylvania. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 48 unique full-time students pursuing bachelor's degrees in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, or Applied Mathematics. Both traditional and transfer students will receive scholarships to aid in their education. They will have opportunities to work in cohorts within and outside their majors during first-year orientation, first-year seminar, and science learning communities. Early connections made in these experiences offer students enhanced support systems to work through more challenging upper-level courses, as do workshops, research projects, and presentation of research to the public, which will also be encouraged and assisted by the grant. The project will also support curriculum improvements aimed at improving first-year student retention in STEM. This project is designed to engage members from local rural communities- either traditional or transfer students- to advance through their education with additional support structures in place. Ultimately, this program will evaluate how students perceive their ties to their discipline and how that informs their on- and off-campus engagement.The project’s primary goal is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The Exploring STEM Identity through a Science Learning Interdisciplinary Community Expansion (SLICE) project will enhance student skill sets and create community connections by pursuing several objectives. First is to utilize cohorts and other supports to remove barriers and to develop authentic peer connections on campus. Second is to expand SLICE Scholars' scientific literacy, communication, and self-efficacy. Third is to encourage SLICE Scholars' career exploration and foster positive professional identity exploration in off-campus settings. Fourth is to nurture SLICE Scholars' ability to develop, analyze, and effectively communicate research findings through senior capstone research experiences. And fifth, to increase SLICE Scholars' time management abilities, decision making, strategic planning, and problem-solving skills. Primary research interests for this project center around the construction of interdisciplinary learning communities and the investigation of their influence on students' perceptions of their identities within the scientific community, the development of authentic connections with peers and faculty and how that impacts STEM identity, and how students develop expertise both within and outside of their fields. Prior studies have found positive gains on student retention by reducing the cognitive dissonance experienced upon initial transfer to a new location. This study aims to see if these methods will be effective in engaging students from rural communities, a student population not currently well-reported on in the literature. Evaluation of the project will be conducted using two major methods: (a) evaluating student retention and graduation rates, and (b) using quasi-experimental design methods to qualitatively and quantitatively code student evaluations and surveys of project programming. Dissemination of results will follow best practices and use a combination of website presence, annual STEM faculty meetings with local community colleges, presentation at local and regional conferences, as well as eventual publication in peer-reviewed journals. 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.