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有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进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。迈阿密大学是一所以本科生为主的公立大学，约有19,900名主校区学生和4,600名地区校区学生，学位范围从副学士到硕士。在为期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)的副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、广泛的项目范围以及在工业制造密集区的实体存在都是支持迈阿密这个项目发展的因素。该项目的课程计划可以使一名即将毕业的高中生从大专升至硕士水平。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，从选择到毕业，监测、支持和指导学生的进步。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牌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。这一项目的更广泛影响来自于改善招收、留住和毕业学生的做法的转变，特别是妇女和STEM中任职人数不足的群体的学生。它的重点是能够获得更高水平的学位，这里提出的变革性方法预计将产生广泛的影响，因为它们：i)创建了一个能够实现更大流动性的课程框架，以及ii)开发了针对特定群体的教学模式。该项目的成功可以在其他机构复制，因为可以直接使用特定的桥梁模块。该项目通过建立社区意识和作为学术进步载体的认同感，展示了奖学金项目的创新，从而确立了其智力优势。通过有目的地将奖学金获得者与导师和一群同行联系起来，拟议的项目提供了一条更好地留住和发展熟练劳动力的途径。该项目还将提供初始数据，以提供概念模型，在该概念模型中，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。随着各行各业采用更高水平的技术和自动化，对进入劳动力大军的个人进行更高级教育的必要性正变得越来越明显。当前劳动力和所需技能方面正在出现的差距为本项目的目标创造了背景。为实现STEM学科中更多样化和更合格的毕业班而提出的办法的一个重要内容是群体发展。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，促进学生的学习，并能够回应个人需求，从而避免一刀切地完成学位。项目成果包括创建一个系统来管理六年内132个奖学金的授予，通过创建一系列学习模块使更多人能够获得更高的学位，以及协调有助于保持学生进步的资源。研究团队已经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该项目招收、招收和留住低收入、有学术天赋的学生的能力的因素。传播项目成果的途径包括由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NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势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.