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

合作研究：课外服务和外展活动对物理本科生坚持和成功的作用

• 批准号: 2214420
• 负责人: Toni Sauncy
• 金额: $ 4.07万
• 依托单位: Texas Lutheran University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2214420&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Role; Co; curricular

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.

该项目旨在通过研究本科生参加面向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的成功来服务于国家利益。大量的研究工作集中在提高STEM在正规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推广计划的影响尚不清楚。先前的工作表明，提高学生的归属感--归属感的定义是被重视并被他们选择的科学学科的合法成员接受--可以减少流失率并提高复原力，特别是在来自代表性不足人群的学生中。参加外展经验可能会发展正规教育之外的技能和能力，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将这些技能确定为物理项目的高度优先事项，以帮助学生为21世纪的职业生涯做准备。该项目旨在对本科物理专业的学生进行一次全国调查，以评估学生对非正式物理项目的参与度，并研究这种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，以改进推广计划和转变文化，以帮助学生成功。本项目计划研究非正式的、联合课程的物理推广计划，这些计划通常由本科生设计和促进，对学生的物理认同感、保持和坚持、归属感和21世纪职业技能的发展的影响。数据将通过分发给美国学院和大学的物理项目的调查仪器收集。本项目旨在创建和验证一个新的调查工具，包括封闭式和开放式问题，以探索学生对外展经验的感知价值及其对信心、社区意识、团队合作能力、沟通科学能力、开发问题创造性解决方案的能力的感知以及体验式和协作式学习对物理知识的影响。这项调查将通过现有的活跃的物理学会学生分会网络在美国各地的本科生中进行，创建一个大型数据集，允许客观检查外展计划如何支持本科生群体，包括那些在STEM传统上代表性不足的学生。对调查答复的分析将探讨外展活动与物理身份的关系，包括作为物理界成员的内部和外部认可、对物理的兴趣和动机、与物理领域内的表现和能力有关的信念、自信和物理自我效能、在该领域坚持下去的愿望，以及对21世纪职业生涯至关重要的职业技能的获得和发展。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与式学生学习路径，该计划支持创建、探索和实施有前途的实践和工具。该项目也得到了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，并增加STEM专科或学士学位学生的招生、留住和毕业率。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。