Nebraska STEM Scholars: Improving Student Success through Scholarship and Support Services

内布拉斯加州 STEM 学者：通过奖学金和支持服务提高学生的成功

• 批准号: 2130142
• 负责人: Danielle Peekenschneider
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: Wayne State College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-01 至 2028-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130142&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Nebraska; STEM; Scholars; Improving; Student

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 Wayne State College (WSC). WSC is a four-year, rural, public college in located northeastern Nebraska. It is part of the Nebraska state college system and serves approximately 4,200 students. WSC's vision is to make a notable difference in rural and community life through learning excellence and student success. Following an aim of the Rural STEM Education Research Act passed by the House of Representatives in May, 2021, the project will be uniquely positioned to increase the capacity of rural northeastern Nebraska to provide quality STEM education and STEM workforce development programming to students. In particular, over its 6-year duration, this project will fund 4-year scholarships to 18 distinct talented, low-income students from rural communities (3 different cohorts of 6 students each) majoring in biology, chemistry, or mathematics. In addition to financial support, students will be provided with comprehensive curricular and co-curricular support opportunities aimed at reducing and removing barriers to STEM success and degree completion. At the initial stage, students will be able to attend a “Succeeding in the Sciences Week” prior to the start of their freshman year to prepare them for the rigors of a STEM education and begin to build a sense of community among their cohort scholar group. Additional support opportunities will include community volunteering, faculty mentoring, internships, on campus living for 2 years, participation and presentations at scientific conferences, special career counseling, supplemental instruction, and faculty mentoring to help students identify and conduct research projects. As another component of the project, faculty will be able to attend a Faculty Mobile Summer Institute, which will provide training in evidence-based teaching methods. Project investigators will disseminate outcomes and findings related to project challenges and successes, especially to other small public rural institutions striving to support low-income STEM students.To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several goals. First is to remove financial barriers and to adapt, implement, and analyze a comprehensive set of evidence-based strategies to build capacity to support, retain, and graduate the project's rural biology, chemistry, and mathematics scholars. Second is to enhance the regional STEM workforce by providing special career preparation opportunities for students to prepare them to contribute through employment or pursuit of advanced degrees. Third is to contribute to the knowledge base by implementing, testing, and studying through project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM. And fourth is to disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports and interventions that promote student success to other institutions working to support talented, low-income STEM students. Aimed at addressing the goals, project evaluation is designed to employ qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insights into the efficacy of project strategies to provide formative and summative feedback to the project and to identify the effective ones for replication, especially in other rural settings. Related to this, the directions of investigation will address gaps in the literature and strengthen the knowledge base on impactful and practical interventions unique to rural, first-generation, low-income, academically talented students. 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.

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高成就，低收入的学生在韦恩州立大学（WSC）证明经济需要的保留和毕业。WSC是一所位于内布拉斯加州东北部的四年制农村公立大学。它是内布拉斯加州立大学系统的一部分，为大约4，200名学生提供服务。WSC的愿景是通过学习卓越和学生的成功，在农村和社区生活显着的差异。根据众议院于2021年5月通过的《农村STEM教育研究法案》的目标，该项目将具有独特的地位，以提高内布拉斯加州东北部农村地区为学生提供优质STEM教育和STEM劳动力发展规划的能力。特别是，该项目将在6年的时间里为来自农村社区的18名有才华的低收入学生（3个不同的组，每组6名学生）提供4年奖学金，主修生物、化学或数学。除了财政支持外，学生还将获得全面的课程和课外支持机会，旨在减少和消除STEM成功和完成学位的障碍。在初始阶段，学生将能够参加“成功的科学周”之前，他们的大一开始，以准备他们的STEM教育的严格，并开始，以建立他们的队列学者群体之间的社区意识。额外的支持机会将包括社区志愿服务，教师指导，实习，在校园生活2年，在科学会议上的参与和演示，特殊的职业咨询，补充指导和教师指导，以帮助学生确定和进行研究项目。作为该项目的另一个组成部分，教师将能够参加一个教师移动的暑期研究所，该研究所将提供循证教学方法的培训。项目调查人员将传播与项目挑战和成功相关的成果和调查结果，特别是向其他努力支持低收入STEM学生的小型农村公立机构传播。为了提高低收入、高成就且有经济需求的本科生完成STEM学位，该项目将追求几个目标。首先是消除财政障碍，调整、实施和分析一套全面的循证战略，以建立支持、留住和毕业该项目的农村生物学、化学和数学学者的能力。其次是通过为学生提供特殊的职业准备机会，使他们能够通过就业或攻读高级学位做出贡献，从而增强区域STEM劳动力。第三是通过实施，测试和研究项目评估策略，系统地支持学生在STEM的学术和职业途径，为知识库做出贡献。第四是传播与促进学生成功的支持和干预措施相关的成果和发现，以支持有才华的低收入STEM学生。项目评估旨在实现这些目标，旨在采用定性和定量方法来深入了解项目战略的有效性，为项目提供形成性和总结性反馈，并确定可供复制的有效战略，特别是在其他农村地区。与此相关，调查的方向将解决文献中的差距，并加强对农村，第一代，低收入，学术天才学生独特的有影响力和实用的干预措施的知识基础。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，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。