Driving Math Competency through STEM Modeling

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，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在谷堡州立大学（FVSU）的经济需要。作为一所历史上的黑人学院和大学（HBCU），FVSU拥有超过86%的低收入学生。 在6年的时间里，该项目将为30名攻读数学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。具体而言，12名一年级学生将获得长达四年的奖学金支持，而18名三年级/转学生将获得长达两年的奖学金支持。该项目旨在为低收入，高成就的学生做好准备，不仅要获得数学学位，还要通过夏季研究接触STEM建模。STEM建模将使学生成为高要求的STEM劳动力和/或研究生STEM学位的有力候选人。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括自我调节学习，成长心态，指导，本科生研究经验，专业发展和参与特定学科的会议，来提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。在六年的时间里，这个项目打算调查的方式，后者的因素影响每个队列的持久性。由于堡谷州立大学有一个代表性不足的学生人口高，这个项目有潜力扩大在干领域的参与。此外，该项目将帮助代表性不足的学生成为优秀的STEM专业人员，以及能够用数学解决真实的世界问题的研究人员。该项目的研究结果将有助于提高低收入、学术天赋好的STEM学生的留存率。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、成绩优异、有经济需要的本科生完成STEM学位的机会。四个目标激励了这个项目。首先是保留数学专业学生的入学率到下一年或将毕业率从57%提高到80%。二是提高学生的自我调节水平。第三，培养学生的成长意识。第四，提高学生的数学认同感。这将通过奖学金申请信息的传播，访问高中，队列建设活动，教师辅导，专业发展和学生支持研讨会来完成。此外，教学活动侧重于认知，元认知和自我管理策略;活动，以促进增长的心态和定期参与数学活动;教师辅导和使用案例研究;沿着提供职业信息将由项目PI协调。尽管已经有研究描述了自我调节、成长心态和专业发展对非裔美国大学生的独立影响，但人们对这三个组成部分的结合如何影响黑人低收入数学学生知之甚少。这个项目将调查自我调节的集体影响，有一个成长的心态，和专业发展的黑人低收入数学学生的持久性。为了评估该项目的有效性，格鲁吉亚州立大学的评估和研究服务中心（CERS）将分析有关自我调节和心态的评估前/中/后数据，并将收集和分析有关参与者在该项目中的经历和对数学的认同的叙述性数据。该项目的成果将通过地方、区域和/或国家专业会议和/或期刊出版物传播。该项目的见解也将通过教师演示与校园内的必要部门分享。该项目由NSF科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，旨在增加低收入学术天才学生的数量，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，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，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。

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 Fort Valley State University (FVSU). As a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), FVSU has over 86% low-income students. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 30 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics. Specifically, 12 first-year students will receive up to four-year scholarship support, while 18 third year/transfer students will receive up to two-year scholarship support. The project aims to prepare low-income, high achieving students not only to obtain a degree in mathematics, but also to gain exposure to STEM modeling through summer research. STEM modeling will enable students to be strong candidates for the high demanding STEM workforce and/or graduate STEM degrees. This project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including self-regulated learning, growth mindset, mentoring, undergraduate research experiences, professional development, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. Over the six years duration, this project intends to investigate the ways in which the latter factors affect persistence for each cohort. Because Fort Valley State University has a high population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields. Moreover, this project will assist in the preparation of underrepresented students to become outstanding STEM professionals, and researchers who are able to solve real world problems with mathematics. The findings of the project will help to improve the retention rate of low-income, academically talented students in STEM.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Four goals animate this project. First is to retain math students’ enrollment into subsequent year or increase graduation rate from 57% to 80%. Second is to improve students’ level of self-regulation. Third is to promote a growth mindset in students. Fourth and finally is to improve mathematics identity among students. This will be done through the dissemination of scholarship application information, visits to high schools, cohort-building activities, faculty mentoring, professional development, and student support workshops. In addition, instructional activities focusing on cognitive, metacognitive, and self-management strategies; activities to foster growth mindsets and regular engagement with mathematics activities; faculty mentoring and the use of case studies; along with provision of career information will be coordinated by the project PIs. Though studies have been done to describe the independent effects of self-regulation, having a growth mindset, and professional development on African American college students, little is known on how a combination of all three components affect black low-income math students. This project will investigate the collective impact of self-regulation, having a growth mindset, and professional development on the persistency of black low-income math students. To evaluate the effectiveness of the project, the Center for Evaluation and Research Services (CERS) at Georgia State University will analyze pre-/mid/post- assessment data regarding self-regulation and mindset and will collect and analyze narrative data regarding participants' experiences in the program and identification with mathematics. The results of the project will be disseminated through professional local, regional and/or national conferences and/or journal publications. Insight from the project will also be shared with the necessary departments on campus through faculty presentations. This project is funded by the NSF 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.