Supporting Student Success and Higher Degree Attainment in Engineering: A Scholarship-Based, Comprehensive Strategy for Talented Low-Income Students

该项目将通过支持俄亥俄州迈阿密大学（Miami University）表现出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。迈阿密大学是一所以本科为主的公立大学，大约有19,900名主校区学生和4,600名地区校区学生，学位从副学士到硕士水平不等。该项目为期6年，将资助132名攻读工程、计算机信息技术、机械工程技术、机械与制造工程（MME）专业副学士、学士和硕士学位的全日制学生。学院的规模、广泛的项目横截面以及工业制造密集地区的物理存在都是支持迈阿密这个项目发展的因素。这个项目的课程计划可以使即将毕业的高中生从副学士升入硕士水平。为了确保高水平的学生成功，多个项目活动将创建一个框架，以监控，支持和指导学生从选择到毕业的进步。这种多层次的方法是该项目的一个显著特点：奖学金解决了经济需求，而额外的活动创造了诸如桥梁模块和指导计划等工具，所有这些都将缩短毕业时间并鼓励获得更高的学位。该项目的更广泛影响来自于改善学生，特别是女性和STEM中代表性不足群体的学生的招聘、保留和毕业的做法的转变。它的重点是实现更高水平的学位，这里提出的变革性方法预计将产生广泛的影响，因为它们，1)创建一个课程框架，使更大的流动性，2)开发适合特定群体的教学模式。项目的成功可以在其他机构复制，因为具体的桥梁模块可以直接使用。该项目通过建立社区意识和作为学术进步工具的身份来展示奖学金项目的创新，从而确立了其智力价值。通过有目的地将奖学金获得者与导师和同龄人联系起来，拟议的项目为更好地留住和发展熟练劳动力提供了途径。该项目还将提供初步数据，为概念模型提供信息，在概念模型中，身份可以通过学习社区、指导和研讨会经验来澄清。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。随着各行各业采用更高水平的技术和自动化，对进入劳动力市场的个人进行更高级教育的需求变得越来越明显。当前劳动力和所需技能组合中出现的差距为这个项目的目标创造了背景。在STEM学科中实现更多样化和合格的毕业班的建议方法的一个重要因素是队列发展。项目的这一方面，在教学研究的支持下，旨在创造一个促进学生学习的群体动态，并能响应个人需求，从而避免一刀切的方法来完成学位。项目成果包括：建立了一个六年内颁发132个奖学金的管理系统，通过创建一系列学习模块使学生更容易获得更高的学位，以及整合有助于保持学生进步的资源。研究小组创建了一个相互交织的评估计划，以实现反思和数据生成，并指导未来的S-STEM项目。评估和评估计划将阐明有助于或挑战项目能力的因素，以招收，招收和留住低收入，学术上有天赋的学生。项目成果的传播途径包括美国国家科学基金会组织的会议、评估结果的报告以及专业会议上的学习内容（桥梁）模块。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 Miami University in Ohio. Miami University is a predominantly undergraduate public university with approximately 19,900 main campus students and 4,600 regional campus students, and degrees ranging from the Associate to the Master’s level. Over its 6 year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 132 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate, bachelor’s, and master’s level degrees in Engineering, Computer Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (MME). The size of the institute, broad cross-section of programs, and physical presence within an industry manufacturing intensive region are all factors that endorse the development of this project at Miami. The curricular plan of this project can enable a graduating high school student to progress from the Associate degree to the Master’s level. To ensure a high level of student success, multiple project activities will create a framework that monitors, supports, and guides student progress from selection to graduation. This multi-tiered approach is a distinguishing feature of the project: The scholarship addresses financial need while the additional activities create tools such as bridge modules and a mentoring program, all of which will reduce time to graduation and encourage the attainment of higher degrees. The broader impacts of this project emerge from the transformation of the practices used to improve the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students, especially women and those from groups underrepresented in STEM. It is focused on enabling the attainment of higher-level degrees, and the transformative approaches presented here are anticipated to have a broad impact because they, i) create a curricular framework that enables greater mobility, and, ii) develop instructional models tailored to specific cohorts. The success of the project can be replicated at other institutions as specific bridge modules may be used directly. The project establishes its intellectual merit by demonstrating innovation in a scholarship program by building a sense of community and identity as a vehicle for academic advancement. By purposefully connecting scholarship recipients to mentors and a cohort of peers, the proposed project provides a pathway to greater retention and development of a skilled workforce. The project will also provide initial data to inform the conceptual model in which identity can be clarified through a learning community, mentoring, and seminar experiences.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The need for more advanced education for individuals entering the workforce is becoming increasingly apparent as sectors across industry adopt higher levels of technology and automation. The emerging gap in the current workforce and required skill-sets creates the backdrop for the goal of this project. A significant element of the proposed approach for the attainment of a more diverse and qualified graduating class in STEM disciplines is cohort development. This aspect of the project, as supported by pedagogical research, is designed to create a group dynamic that promotes student learning and can respond to individual needs, thereby eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach to degree completion. The project outcomes include the creation of a system to administer the awarding of 132 scholarships over six years, enable greater accessibility to higher degrees by creating a range of learning modules, and the alignment of resources that help sustain student progress. The research team has created an interwoven assessment plan to enable reflection and data generation and to guide future S-STEM projects. The evaluation and assessment plans will elucidate the factors that contribute to or challenge the project’s capacity to recruit, enroll and retain low-income, academically talented students in the program. Avenues for the dissemination of the project results include NSF-organized conferences, reporting of assessment findings, and content of learning (bridge) modules at professional conferences. 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.