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

该项目将通过支持在匹兹堡大学格林斯堡分校（皮特-格林斯堡）有经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，为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做出贡献。皮特-格林斯堡校区是匹兹堡大学的一个区域校区，有很大一部分学生来自宾夕法尼亚州的农村地区。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为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。他们将有机会在第一年的入学指导、第一年的研讨会和科学学习社区中在专业内外的群体中工作。在这些经历中建立的早期联系为学生提供了更好的支持系统，使他们能够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，这些也将得到资助的鼓励和帮助。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。该项目旨在吸引来自当地农村社区的成员——无论是传统学生还是转校生——在适当的额外支持结构下完成他们的教育。最终，该项目将评估学生如何看待自己与学科的联系，以及这种联系如何影响他们在校内外的参与。该项目的主要目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、优秀本科生的STEM学位完成率。通过科学学习跨学科社区扩展（SLICE）项目探索STEM身份将通过追求几个目标来提高学生的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，在校园里建立真正的同伴联系。二是拓展SLICE学者的科学素养、沟通能力和自我效能感。三是鼓励大学生在校外进行职业探索，培养积极的职业认同探索。四是通过资深顶点研究经验，培养SLICE学者开发、分析和有效交流研究成果的能力。第五，提高学生的时间管理能力、决策能力、战略规划能力和解决问题的能力。该项目的主要研究兴趣集中在跨学科学习社区的建设和研究它们对学生在科学社区中对自己身份的看法的影响，与同龄人和教师建立真实联系的发展以及这如何影响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，通过减少初次迁移到新地点时所经历的认知失调，对学生的保留率有积极的好处。这项研究的目的是看看这些方法是否会有效地吸引来自农村社区的学生，这是一个目前在文献中没有得到充分报道的学生群体。该项目的评估将使用两种主要方法进行：(a)评估学生留校率和毕业率，以及(b)使用准实验设计方法对学生评估和项目规划调查进行定性和定量编码。结果的传播将遵循最佳实践，并结合网站的存在、与当地社区学院的年度STEM教师会议、在当地和区域会议上的演讲，以及最终在同行评议的期刊上发表。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.