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

支持学生在工程领域取得成功并获得更高学位：针对有才华的低收入学生的基于奖学金的综合策略

• 批准号: 2130384
• 负责人: Kumar Singh
• 金额: $ 149.92万
• 依托单位: Miami University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-12-01 至 2027-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130384&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Supporting; Student; Success; Higher; Degree

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.

该项目将有助于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，支持高成就，低收入的学生在迈阿密大学在俄亥俄州证明经济需要的保留和毕业。迈阿密大学是一所以本科为主的公立大学，拥有约19，900名主校区学生和4，600名区域校区学生，学位范围从副学士到硕士。在6年的时间里，该项目将为132名正在攻读工程、计算机信息技术、机械工程技术和机械与制造工程（MME）方面的副学士、学士和硕士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。该研究所的规模，广泛的跨部门计划，以及在工业制造密集区的物理存在都是支持该项目在迈阿密发展的因素。本计画之课程计画，可使高中毕业生由副学士升为硕士。为了确保学生的成功，多个项目活动将创建一个框架，监控，支持和指导学生从选择到毕业的进展。这种多层次的方法是该项目的一个显着特点：奖学金解决财政需求，而额外的活动创建工具，如桥梁模块和辅导计划，所有这些都将减少毕业时间，并鼓励获得更高的学位。该项目的更广泛影响来自于用于改善学生，特别是妇女和来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生的招聘，保留和毕业的做法的转变。它的重点是实现更高层次的学位，这里提出的变革性方法预计将产生广泛的影响，因为它们，i）创建一个课程框架，使更大的流动性，以及，ii）开发针对特定群体的教学模式。该项目的成功经验可以在其他机构推广，因为可以直接使用具体的桥梁模块。该项目通过展示奖学金计划的创新来建立其智力价值，通过建立社区和身份感作为学术进步的工具。通过有目的地将奖学金获得者与导师和一群同龄人联系起来，拟议的项目为更好地留住和发展熟练劳动力提供了一条途径。该项目还将提供初始数据，为概念模型提供信息，在概念模型中，可以通过学习社区、指导和研讨会经验来澄清身份。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。随着整个行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该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拟议方法的一个重要因素是队列发展。在教学研究的支持下，该项目的这一方面旨在创造一种群体动力，促进学生学习，并能满足个人需求，从而避免以一刀切的方式完成学位。该项目的成果包括建立一个系统，在六年内管理132个奖学金的发放，通过创建一系列学习模块，使更多的人获得更高的学位，并调整资源，帮助维持学生的进步。研究团队创建了一个交织的评估计划，以实现反思和数据生成，并指导未来的S-STEM项目。评价和评估计划将阐明有助于或挑战该项目在该计划中招募，招收和留住低收入，学术天赋学生的能力的因素。传播项目成果的途径包括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（过渡）单元内容。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，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，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。