Sociocultural and Place-Aware Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholars

社会文化和地方意识土木与环境工程学者

• 批准号: 2221012
• 负责人: Christina Curras
• 金额: $ 149.87万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Platteville
• 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: 2022-11-01 至 2028-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Sociocultural; Place; Aware; Civil; Environmental

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated engineers by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a regional-serving predominately undergraduate public institution with a tradition for strong engineering programs. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in civil and/or environmental engineering. First-year students will receive up to four years of scholarship support. In support of the overall S-STEM program goal of enabling low-income students with academic ability to pursue successful careers in STEM fields, this project aims to support student growth into community-minded, socially responsible civil and environmental engineers. The project features a three-pronged, place-based approach including a seminar and general education course, local field trips, and an extended regional field trip. The project centers on the importance of increasing participation of professionals from a low economic background in the civil and environmental engineering industry, developing engineers who have a holistic community and place-based perspective, and influencing the future civil and environmental engineering workforce to produce solutions that appropriately address justice, equity, and inclusion. The project will contribute to the body of knowledge by helping to identify and advance best practices for socio-culturally aware place-based engineering education. 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 infrastructure engineers goes beyond graduating civil and environmental engineers who are technically proficient. As society moves forward into an age in need of increased equity and accountability, engineers must increasingly account for the current and future people for whom and the places in which their infrastructure will exist. Thus, this project has two specific aims: 1) Expand scholars’ sense of identity and confidence in themselves as civil and environmental engineers and 2) Cultivate a community and place-based perspective in the scholars. The project has the potential to identify and advance understanding of best practices for socio-culturally aware place-based engineering education. This project will investigate the effects of place-based engineering education on students’ professional identity development in civil and environmental engineering. In addition, this project will look at the effect of high-impact practices in promoting student retention and success. This project will investigate the possibility that scholars develop a stronger sense of identity and confidence as well as a community-based perspective from participating in place-based engineering education activities. This project will be evaluated using academic performance metrics, retention and graduation rates, post-graduation placement data, surveys and focus groups, analysis of ABET student learning outcomes, and analysis of scholar capstone reflections. Results of this project will be made available at regular UW-Platteville Engineering Advisory Board meetings, via conference presentations, and through submission to 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.

该项目将通过支持威斯康星大学普拉特维尔分校保留和毕业有经济需求的成绩优异、低收入的学生，满足国家对受过良好教育的工程师的需求。威斯康星大学普拉特维尔分校是一所以本科生为主的地区性公共机构，拥有强大的工程项目传统。该项目为期 5 年，将为 24 名攻读土木和/或环境工程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。为了支持 S-STEM 项目的总体目标，即让具有学术能力的低收入学生在 STEM 领域追求成功的职业生涯，该项目旨在支持学生成长为具有社区意识、对社会负责的土木和环境工程师。该项目采用三管齐下、基于地点的方法，包括研讨会和通识教育课程、当地实地考察以及扩展的区域实地考察。该项目的重点是增加来自低经济背景的专业人士对土木和环境工程行业的参与，培养具有整体社区和地方视角的工程师，并影响未来的土木和环境工程劳动力，以制定适当解决正义、公平和包容性的解决方案。该项目将通过帮助确定和推进具有社会文化意识的基于地点的工程教育的最佳实践，为知识体系做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的本科生完成 STEM 学位的机会。对基础设施工程师的需求不仅仅是技术熟练的土木和环境工程师毕业。随着社会进入一个需要增加公平和问责制的时代，工程师必须越来越多地考虑当前和未来的人们以及他们的基础设施将存在的地点。因此，该项目有两个具体目标：1）增强学者对自己作为土木和环境工程师的认同感和信心；2）培养学者的社区和地方视角。该项目有潜力确定并促进对具有社会文化意识的地方工程教育最佳实践的理解。该项目将研究在地工程教育对土木与环境工程专业学生职业认同发展的影响。此外，该项目还将研究高影响力实践在促进学生保留和成功方面的效果。该项目将探讨学者们通过参与本地工程教育活动来培养更强的认同感和信心以及基于社区的视角的可能性。该项目将使用学术表现指标、保留率和毕业率、毕业后安置数据、调查和焦点小组、ABET 学生学习成果分析以及学者顶峰反思分析进行评估。该项目的结果将在威斯康星大学普拉特维尔分校工程咨询委员会定期会议上、通过会议演示以及向期刊提交的方式公布。该项目由 NSF 科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加具有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生获得 STEM 领域学位的数量。它还旨在改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育，并产生有关低收入学生的学业成功、保留、转学、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价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。