Chesapeake Scholars in the Physical Sciences

切萨皮克物理科学学者

• 批准号: 2221369
• 负责人: Eun-Suk Seo
• 金额: $ 149.26万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 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: 2022-12-01 至 2027-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Chesapeake; Scholars; Physical; Sciences

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Maryland, College Park. Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in six physical science disciplines: Astronomy, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics. Incoming first year students will receive four years of scholarship support, while transfer students will receive up to three years of support. The project will also provide three years of support for students who declare a physical science major during their freshman year. Scholar participants in the program will be supported by both a faculty mentoring program and a peer mentoring program. Students will have access to research experiences in university lab, and will have the opportunity to present the results of their research at professional conferences. Due to the University of Maryland’s location in the national capital region, scholars will have the opportunity to visit national labs and other federal science facilities. Other student support services are available, including career advising and preparation for graduate school. The project leadership will study how well the programmatic activities engender a sense of belonging towards the disciplines and the Chesapeake Scholars cohort, and whether the program increases engagement in the academic programs and decreases attrition. The project will support an increase in the domestically trained STEM workforce in the region and nationally. It will also seek to transform the educational experience of undergraduates in the university more generally. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The four specific goals of the program are to: (1) increase retention among academically talented bachelor’s degree candidates who matriculate at the university with a declared physical science major; (2) increase retention among academically talented students who declare a physical science major during or after their freshman year; (3) increase retention among academically talented transfer students who declare a physical science major; and (4) increase students’ self-reported sense of belonging to their disciplines and their cohort. Two prior S-STEM programs at the University of Maryland have demonstrated the successful retention of academically talented low-income students studying engineering and physics. The Chesapeake Scholars program will investigate whether this retention success can be extended to a larger cohort of students studying a wider range of physical science disciplines. More generally, the project will seek to advance the understanding of student persistence in undergraduate STEM education. Using typical four-year plans for each physical science degree, the project leadership has identified key course sequences (in math, physics, and chemistry) within which to track retention from semester-to-semester. Student retention rates from semester to semester will be tracked in these course sequences with flow diagrams, specifically for the Chesapeake Scholars and for the general student body. Student retention in the physical science degree programs will be compared in relation to the one-year and two-year retention goals, including retention in-major, in the physical sciences, and within the college broadly. The results of internal and external evaluations will be disseminated so that scholars and the public have access to the findings. 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.

该项目将通过支持马里兰大学学院园区的高成绩、低收入、有经济需求的学生的留校和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的科学家的需求做出贡献。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为28名正在攻读六个物理科学学科的理学学士学位的本科生提供奖学金：天文学、大气和海洋科学、生物化学、化学、地质学和物理学。新入学的一年级学生将获得四年的奖学金支持，而转校生将获得最多三年的支持。该项目还将为在大一宣布攻读物理专业的学生提供为期三年的支持。参加该计划的学者将得到教师指导计划和同行指导计划的支持。学生将有机会接触到大学实验室的研究经验，并有机会在专业会议上展示他们的研究成果。由于马里兰大学位于国家首府地区，学者们将有机会参观国家实验室和其他联邦科学设施。还提供其他学生支持服务，包括职业咨询和研究生入学准备。项目领导将研究项目活动在多大程度上产生了对学科和切萨皮克学者群体的归属感，以及该项目是否增加了对学术项目的参与并减少了人员流失。该项目将支持在该区域和全国增加接受国内培训的STEM劳动力。它还将寻求更广泛地改变大学本科生的教育经历。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。该计划的四个具体目标是：(1)提高被该大学录取的有学术天赋的学士学位候选人的留存率；(2)提高在大一期间或之后宣布攻读物理科学专业的学业有才华的学生的留存率；(3)增加宣布攻读物理科学专业的学业有才华的转校生的留存率；以及(4)增加学生对自己所在学科和同龄人的自我归属感。马里兰大学之前的两个S-STEM项目已经证明，成功地留住了学习工程和物理的低收入家庭学生。切萨皮克学者计划将调查这种留校成功是否可以扩展到学习更广泛的物理科学学科的更大一批学生。更广泛地说，该项目将寻求在本科STEM教育中增进对学生坚持不懈的理解。使用每个物理科学学位的典型四年计划，项目领导已经确定了关键的课程序列(数学、物理和化学)，在其中跟踪从一个学期到另一个学期的留存情况。从学期到学期的学生保留率将通过流程图在这些课程序列中进行跟踪，特别是针对切萨皮克奖学金学生和一般学生群体。学生在物理科学学位课程中的保留率将与一年和两年的保留率目标进行比较，包括专业保留率、物理科学保留率和学院内保留率。将公布内部和外部评价的结果，使学者和公众能够获得评价结果。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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业成功、留住、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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。