Increasing Success of STEM Students through Cohort Building, Mentoring, and Career Discerning Experiences: an Interdisciplinary Collaboration

通过队列建设、指导和职业洞察经验提高 STEM 学生的成功：跨学科合作

• 批准号: 2220647
• 负责人: Lori Watson
• 金额: $ 74.72万
• 依托单位: Earlham College
• 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: 2022-12-15 至 2028-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2220647&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Success; STEM; Students; 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 Earlham College, a small liberal arts college located in predominantly rural east central Indiana. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 15 unique full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, data science, earth and environmental science, mathematics, physics or pre-engineering. First-year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support. This project is designed to increase the number of students who enter the STEM workforce or graduate programs by reducing financial barriers and providing cohort building, career discernment, and mentoring activities. Highlights include a cohort-based college orientation, a fully funded early research experience, extensive advising and cohort building through Faculty and peer mentoring, and career discernment activities integrated into required first and second year courses. This project has the potential to generate knowledge about the effects of early research participation on career engagement and STEM persistence of this student population.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific aims include: retain 85% of the participants in a STEM discipline after their first year, have a graduation rate within a STEM discipline of 75% of the Scholars, and increase the percentage of STEM graduates who have entered the STEM workforce or graduate programs within six months of graduation to 85%. While there are studies linking undergraduate research to increased career planning for employment and postgraduate education, and examples of connecting undergraduate research to workplace and career-ready skills, these studies generally focus on upper-level undergraduates who are near completion of a STEM program and rarely include intentional preparation for, and post-reflection of, the research experience as career-discerning. This project will answer the question: What is the effect of early research participation framed by formal career education on career engagement and STEM persistence for low-income students? This project has the potential to advance the understanding of the use of an early research experience to jump-start students’ career engagement, envision their future as a scientist, and work toward that career goal both by persisting in the STEM major and pursuing further research/internship experiences. This project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach to understand the efficacy of the increased focus on career discernment support, including monitoring scholars' first and second year retention in a STEM major, subsequent engagement in additional research/internships, graduation rates, and career plans of graduate work or employment in a STEM field. The project’s strategies, implementation, and outcomes for improving the success of academically talented low-income students will be disseminated internally and at local, regional, and national conferences and in appropriate peer reviewed journals. 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.

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入的学生在厄勒姆学院，一个小型的文科学院位于主要是农村中东部印第安纳州证明经济需要的保留和毕业。在六年的时间里，该项目将为15名正在攻读生物学、生物化学、化学、计算机科学、数据科学、地球与环境科学、数学、物理或工程预科学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在通过减少财务障碍和提供队列建设，职业识别和指导活动来增加进入STEM劳动力或研究生课程的学生人数。亮点包括一个基于队列的大学方向，一个完全资助的早期研究经验，通过教师和同行指导广泛的咨询和队列建设，以及职业识别活动整合到所需的第一年和第二年的课程。该项目有可能产生有关早期参与研究对职业参与和STEM持续性的影响的知识。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成证明经济需要。具体目标包括：在第一年后保留85%的STEM学科参与者，STEM学科的毕业率为75%的学者，并将STEM毕业生在毕业后六个月内进入STEM劳动力或研究生课程的比例提高到85%。虽然有研究将本科生研究与就业和研究生教育的职业规划联系起来，以及将本科生研究与工作场所和职业准备技能联系起来的例子，但这些研究通常侧重于即将完成STEM课程的高年级本科生，很少包括有意准备和反思，研究经验作为职业辨别。这个项目将回答这样一个问题：什么是早期研究参与的影响，由正式的职业教育对职业参与和干持久性低收入家庭的学生？该项目有可能促进对使用早期研究经验的理解，以启动学生的职业参与，设想他们作为科学家的未来，并通过坚持STEM专业和追求进一步的研究/实习经验来实现职业目标。该项目将使用混合方法进行评估，以了解更加注重职业识别支持的有效性，包括监测学者在STEM专业的第一年和第二年的保留情况，随后参与额外的研究/实习，毕业率，以及毕业生工作或就业的职业计划在STEM领域。该项目的战略、实施和成果，以提高学术天才的低收入家庭学生的成功，将在内部和地方、区域和国家会议上以及在适当的同行评审期刊上传播。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，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。