Recognizing Science Scholars' Potential through Access and Engagement

通过接触和参与认识科学学者的潜力

• 批准号: 2130501
• 负责人: Kristyn VanderWaal Mills
• 金额: $ 150万
• 依托单位: Saint Paul College-A community & Technical College
• 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: 2021-11-15 至 2027-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130501&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Recognizing; Science; Scholars; Potential; through

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 Saint Paul College, an urban community and technical college with a large population of students from populations traditionally underrepresented in STEM. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to approximately 80 unique full and part time students who are pursuing associates degrees primarily in Science and Engineering Technology. Students will be awarded up to $16,000 over up to eight semesters, including summer. The “Science Scholar” students participate in relationship-building co-curricular activities: faculty and peer mentoring, science-related campus events and service-learning activities, and a semester long undergraduate research project. The Science and Engineering Technology A.S. program encourages transfer or entrance to the workforce, so students can work while continuing towards their B.S, degree. The educational research on the effect of the project on student success, experience, and career choice will help inform science education and co-curricular engagement at many two-year schools with a diverse student pool.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The first major objective is to recruit and award scholarships to these students, using internal recruitment strategies and partnerships with area high schools. The project will also increase participation of students from groups underrepresented in STEM due to the diversity in the pool of potential students. The recruitment events at partner high schools will expose high school students to STEM career opportunities and solidify a pipeline of students coming to the two-year institution. The scholarship amount is approximately the cost of tuition and fees for a full-time student, so the first expected outcome is the scholarships will increase the number of students completing an A.S. degree. The second objective is to add the relationship-building, co-curricular, high impact practices (HIPs) to the scholarship program. Previous research, mainly performed at universities, suggests scholarships combined with support services increased student success and promote access. Hence, an expected second outcome is an increase in retention and student success. The third objective is to perform and disseminate educational research on the effectiveness of the scholarship/HIPs on student success (course success, retention, and graduation/transfer), science attitudes, and career choice. A mixed- methods approach will link survey responses to student records, and the focus groups will give context to the quantitative data. Further, there is a notable gap of applied science education research coming from two-year institutions. The dissemination of the project findings, the third project outcome, will play a small role in closing this gap. 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.

该项目将促进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，方法是支持圣保罗学院留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就低收入学生。圣保罗学院是一所城市社区和技术学院，有大量学生来自传统上在STEM中任职人数较少的人群。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为大约80名主要在科学和工程技术领域攻读副学士学位的全日制和兼职学生提供奖学金。学生将在包括暑期在内的八个学期内获得最高16,000美元的奖励。“科学学者”的学生参与建立关系的共同课程活动：教师和同行指导，与科学有关的校园活动和服务学习活动，以及一个为期一学期的本科生研究项目。科学和工程技术A.S.计划鼓励转业或进入劳动力大军，这样学生就可以在继续攻读理科学士学位的同时工作。该项目对学生成功、经历和职业选择的影响的教育研究将有助于许多学生群体多样化的两年制学校的科学教育和联合课程参与。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。第一个主要目标是利用内部招聘战略和与地区高中的伙伴关系，招募这些学生并向他们颁发奖学金。由于潜在学生群体的多样性，该项目还将增加STEM中任职人数不足的群体的学生的参与。合作高中的招生活动将使高中生获得STEM职业机会，并巩固进入这所两年制院校的学生的渠道。奖学金金额大约相当于一名全日制学生的学杂费，因此第一个预期的结果是，奖学金将增加完成A.S.学位的学生数量。第二个目标是将建立关系、共同课程、高影响力实践(HIPS)添加到奖学金计划中。之前的研究主要是在大学进行的，研究表明，奖学金和支持服务相结合可以提高学生的成功，促进学生的入学机会。因此，预计的第二个结果是留校率和学生成就率的增加。第三个目标是开展和传播关于奖学金/HIPS在学生成功(课程成功、留住学生和毕业/转学)、科学态度和职业选择方面的有效性的教育研究。混合方法将把调查结果与学生记录联系起来，焦点小组将为量化数据提供背景信息。此外，来自两年制院校的应用科学教育研究存在着显著的差距。传播项目结果，即第三个项目成果，将在缩小这一差距方面起到很小的作用。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。