Leveraging Technology: Providing a Comprehensive, Active Learning, Online Support Network for STEM Students Attending a Small, Rural, and Remote Community College

利用技术：为就读小型、农村和偏远社区学院的 STEM 学生提供全面、主动学习的在线支持网络

• 批准号: 2130277
• 负责人: Anna Thompson
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: FEATHER RIVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
• 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: 2022-04-15 至 2028-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130277&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Leveraging; Technology; Providing; Comprehensive; Active

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 Feather River College (FRC), which is one of the smallest, most rural and remote community colleges within the California Community College System. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships up to 43 community college students who are pursuing associate’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, or Physical Sciences. Full-time STEM students will receive up to 6 semesters of scholarships and part-time students (enrolled for at least 6 semester units) will receive up to 8 semesters of scholarships based on financial need. FRC is a small community college in rural and remote north-eastern California. The project aims to increase the parity of rural STEM students with their urban peers, as they enter and graduate from FRC’s Associate of Science programs in order to transfer vertically in STEM or to join governmental organizations or industry in a STEM capacity. Importantly, rural community colleges are the fastest growing sector of U.S. community colleges and thus represent one of the greatest future opportunities to impact STEM workforce development. This project, structured by the Guided Pathways Model, aims to leverage technology in order to build a STEM identity that reaches outside the county without the need to travel, and to more fully support students as they enter the rural STEM pipeline. As a small, rural and geographically remote community college, this project has significant potential to become a model to advance understanding of how to effectively and efficiently support rural STEM students as they navigate the rural STEM pipeline.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The scope of this project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with the following three objectives and interventions: (1) Recruit, retain and support FRC STEM Students with an institutional STEM Task Force. (2) Boost STEM identity and ongoing participation in STEM with an online STEM success and enrichment course that will bring STEM scientists and their science to FRC in an effective and efficient way. Both these objectives will be supported by STEM online active learning office Hours that will (3) allow students to increase student engagement and learning in a time-flexible setting. An important goal of this project, supported by an embedded educational researcher, is to increase understanding about the barriers rural STEM students face and how to mitigate such barriers to increase retention in the rural STEM pipeline and thus positively impact STEM workforce development. In addition, a robust, iterative project evaluation approach will ensure that project objectives are met and modified as needed to address the barrier that affect the success and retention of rural STEM students. The implementation and outcomes of this project should be of interest to a variety of post-secondary education stakeholders interested in rural communities and STEM workforce development. Dissemination will target a wide audience including, but not limited to, education researchers, policymakers, and transfer institutions, in order to maximize the visibility of this project. 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.

该项目将通过支持羽毛河学院（FRC）中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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。羽毛河学院是加州社区学院系统中最小、最偏远的农村社区学院之一。该项目为期六年，将为攻读生物、化学、环境科学或物理科学副学士学位的43名社区大学生提供奖学金。全日制STEM学生将获得最多6个学期的奖学金，兼职学生（注册至少6个学期）将根据经济需要获得最多8个学期的奖学金。FRC是一所小型社区学院，位于加州东北部偏远的农村地区。该项目旨在提高农村STEM学生与城市同龄人的平等，因为他们进入和毕业于FRC的科学副学士课程，以便在STEM领域垂直转移或以STEM身份加入政府组织或行业。重要的是，农村社区学院是美国社区学院中增长最快的部门，因此代表了影响STEM劳动力发展的最大未来机会之一。该项目由引导路径模型（Guided Pathways Model）构建，旨在利用技术来建立一个不需要旅行就能到达县外的STEM身份，并在学生进入农村STEM管道时更充分地支持他们。作为一所小型的、偏远的农村社区大学，该项目具有巨大的潜力，可以成为一种模式，以促进对如何有效和高效地支持农村STEM学生的理解，因为他们在农村STEM管道中导航。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该计划旨在通过将奖学金与以下三个目标和干预措施联系起来，提高学生对STEM领域的坚持度：(1)通过院校STEM专责小组招募、留住和支持财务报表财务委员会STEM学生。(2)通过在线STEM成功和丰富课程提升STEM身份和持续参与STEM，将STEM科学家和他们的科学以有效和高效的方式带入FRC。这两个目标都将得到STEM在线主动学习办公时间的支持，这将(3)允许学生在时间灵活的环境中提高学生参与度和学习。该项目的一个重要目标是增加对农村STEM学生面临的障碍的理解，以及如何减轻这些障碍，以增加农村STEM管道的保留率，从而对STEM劳动力的发展产生积极影响。此外，一个强大的、迭代的项目评估方法将确保项目目标得到满足，并根据需要进行修改，以解决影响农村STEM学生成功和保留的障碍。该项目的实施和成果应引起对农村社区和STEM劳动力发展感兴趣的各种高等教育利益相关者的兴趣。传播将针对广泛的受众，包括但不限于教育研究人员、政策制定者和转移机构，以最大限度地提高该项目的知名度。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。