Collaborative Research: The Role of Co-curricular Service and Outreach Activities on Persistence and Success for Undergraduate Physics Students

本项目旨在通过研究本科学生参与K-12学生的非正式物理推广计划如何影响他们作为物理专业学生的成功，为国家利益服务。重要的研究工作集中在提高STEM在正式教育环境中的保留率，如课堂或实验室，而学生参与非正式物理拓展项目的影响尚不清楚。先前的研究表明，提高学生的归属感，即被重视和被接受为他们所选择的科学学科的合法成员的感觉，可以降低流失率，提高适应力，尤其是在代表性不足的人群中。参与外展活动可以培养超出正规教育重点的技能和能力，包括沟通、团队合作和创造力。美国物理学会和美国物理教师协会已经将这些技能确定为物理课程的重中之重，以帮助学生为21世纪的职业生涯做好准备。本项目拟在全国范围内对物理专业本科学生进行调查，以评估学生在非正式物理课程中的参与度，并研究参与度与学生成功因素的关系。对调查结果的分析应该为物理系提供一套最佳实践建议，以改善拓展项目和转变文化，帮助学生取得成功。本项目计划研究通常由本科生设计和推动的非正式课外物理推广项目对学生的物理认同、保留和坚持、归属感以及21世纪职业技能发展的影响。数据将通过分发给美国高校物理专业的调查仪器收集。该项目旨在创建并验证一种新的调查工具，其中包含封闭式和开放式的问题，以探索学生对外展体验的感知价值及其对自信心、社区意识、团队合作能力、科学交流能力、开发问题创造性解决方案的能力的感知影响，以及体验式和协作式学习对物理知识的感知影响。该调查将通过现有的活跃的物理学会学生分会网络提供给美国各地的本科生，创建一个大型数据集，可以客观地检查外展计划如何支持本科生群体，包括那些传统上在STEM中代表性不足的群体。对调查结果的分析将探讨拓展活动与物理身份的关系，包括作为物理社区成员的内部和外部认可，对物理的兴趣和动机，与物理表现和能力相关的信念，信心和物理自我效能感，坚持该领域的愿望，以及对21世纪职业重要的职业技能的获取和发展。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该项目还得到了NSF IUSE:HSI计划的支持，该计划的目标是提高STEM本科教育的质量，提高攻读STEM副学士学位或学士学位的学生的招聘、保留和毕业率。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 aims to serve the national interest by studying how undergraduate student participation in informal physics outreach programs for K-12 students affects their success as physics majors. Significant research efforts have focused on improving retention in STEM in formal educational settings, such as the classroom or laboratory, while the impact of student participation in informal physics outreach programs remains unclear. Prior work suggests that improving students' sense of belonging, defined by the feeling of being valued and accepted as a legitimate member of their chosen scientific discipline can reduce attrition rates and increase resilience, particularly among students from underrepresented populations. Participating in outreach experiences may develop skills and abilities beyond the focus of formal education, including communication, teamwork, and creativity. The American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers have identified these skills as a high priority for physics programs to prepare students for 21st century careers. Thsi project intends to conduct a national survey of undergraduate physics majors to assess student engagement in informal physics programs and to study how the engagement is related to student success factors. The analysis of survey results should inform a set of best-practice recommendations for physics departments for improving outreach programs and transforming culture to help students succeed.This project plans to study the impact of informal, co-curricular physics outreach programs, which are often designed and facilitated by undergraduate students, on students’ physics identity, retention and persistence, sense of belonging, and the development of 21st century career skills. Data will be collected via a survey instrument distributed to physics programs at US colleges and universities. This project intends to create and validate a new survey instrument with closed and open-ended questions to probe students’ perceived value of the outreach experience and its impact on measures of confidence, sense of community, ability to work in teams, competence in communicating science, perceptions of ability to develop creative solutions to problems and perceived impact of experiential and collaborative learning on physics knowledge. The survey will be given to undergraduate students across the US through the existing network of active Society of Physics Students chapters, creating a large dataset that allows for an objective examination of how outreach programs support undergraduate student populations, including those traditionally underrepresented in STEM. Analysis of the survey responses will explore the relationship of outreach activities to physics identity including internal and external recognition as a member of the physics community, interest and motivation in physics, beliefs related to performance and competency within physics, confidence and physics self-efficacy, and desire to persist in the field, as well as acquisition and development of career skills important to 21st century careers. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This project is also supported by the NSF IUSE:HSI program, which has the goals of enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education, and increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM.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.