Building Resilience and Engaging in Achievement through Collaborative, Holistic Programming in STEM

通过 STEM 中的协作、整体规划来增强韧性并取得成就

• 批准号: 2221224
• 负责人: Laura Strausberg
• 金额: $ 101.83万
• 依托单位: Wesleyan College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-15 至 2029-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221224&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Building; Resilience; Engaging; Achievement; through

This project aims to answer 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. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 21 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, neuroscience, and applied mathematical science. First-year students, particularly students who attend rural high schools in the region, will receive scholarships for four years. Scholarships will begin at $6,500 in Year 1 and incrementally increase to $8,000 in Year 4 based on financial need. Additionally, students will receive summer scholarships of $2,000 during Years 2-4 for those scholars who opt to take six credits of summer courses for academic advancement or recovery. Informed by the research literature, institutional data, and student survey data, the curricular and co-curricular supports include implementation of mathematics support in early gateway STEM courses through co-requisite pre-calculus courses; a summer bridge program; development and support of mindfulness practices by scholars that include self-visualization; robust faculty mentoring; peer tutoring; micro-credentials; networking; undergraduate research experiences and internships; and placement into student cohorts. Recognizing the importance of financial support and a robust system of academic and co-curricular support and cohorts, the design of project activities and strategies respond to the impact of COVID-19 on secondary and post-secondary education. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need at Wesleyan College, a small liberal arts college for women. Four objectives provide a framework for the project to achieve its goal. First is the recruitment and enrollment of 21 low-income academically talented female undergraduate scholars in biology, neuroscience, and applied mathematical science. Second is the retention of 71% of the scholars in their STEM majors from their first to second year. Third is meeting a graduation target of 67% of scholars in STEM and ensuring that 79% of the graduating scholars enter into the STEM workforce or graduate studies in STEM. Fourth, and finally, is investigation into the efficacy of the proposed strategies and activities to influence student success and the influence of mindfulness practices in reducing stress overall and specifically in gateway mathematics courses. To support and inform project implementation and contribute to a deep understanding of psychosocial factors influencing student success, a mixed methods evaluation and research study will be conducted using quantitative and qualitative research methods for project improvement (formative evaluation), accountability (summative evaluation), and knowledge generation. Findings resulting from this project will be disseminated throughout the Wesleyan College community; statewide conferences for mathematics teachers; local, regional, state, and national conferences focused on curricular and co-curricular innovation (e.g., First Year Experience, undergraduate research experiences, education of women students); and research conferences on education. 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.

该项目旨在满足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，支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。在六年的时间里，该项目将为21名正在攻读生物学、神经科学和应用数学科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生，特别是在该地区农村高中就读的学生，将获得为期四年的奖学金。奖学金将开始在第一年6,500美元，并逐步增加到8,000美元，在第四年根据经济需要。此外，学生将在2-4年级获得2,000美元的夏季奖学金，用于那些选择参加六个学分的夏季课程以进行学术进步或恢复的学者。通过研究文献，机构数据和学生调查数据，课程和课外支持包括通过共同必备的微积分课程在早期门户STEM课程中实施数学支持;一个夏桥计划;学者的正念实践的发展和支持，包括自我可视化;强大的教师指导;同伴辅导;微证书;网络;本科生研究经验和实习;并安置到学生队列。认识到财政支持以及强大的学术和课外支持和队列系统的重要性，项目活动和策略的设计应对COVID-19对中学和中学后教育的影响。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生在卫斯理学院，一个小型的女子文理学院证明经济需要完成STEM学位。四个目标为项目实现其目标提供了框架。首先是招聘和招收21名低收入的学术天才女本科生学者在生物学，神经科学和应用数学科学。其次是71%的学者从第一年到第二年保留在STEM专业。第三是实现STEM学者67%的毕业目标，并确保79%的毕业学者进入STEM劳动力队伍或STEM研究生学习。第四，也是最后，是调查的有效性，提出的策略和活动，以影响学生的成功和正念练习的影响，在减少压力的整体，特别是在网关数学课程。为了支持和告知项目实施，并有助于对影响学生成功的心理社会因素的深入了解，将使用定量和定性研究方法进行混合方法评估和研究，用于项目改进（形成性评估），问责制（总结性评估）和知识生成。从这个项目产生的结果将在整个卫斯理学院社区传播;全州数学教师会议;地方，地区，州和国家会议侧重于课程和课外创新（例如，第一年经验、本科研究经验、女学生的教育）;以及教育研究会议。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。