Enhancing Career Pathways of Talented Financially Disadvantaged Biology STEM Students Through Scholarships and Inclusive Transformative Academic Experiences

该项目将通过支持佛罗里达国际大学（FIU）表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为全国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做出贡献。FIU是一个公共卡内基R1研究和西班牙裔服务机构。该项目为期6年，将通过两个组别向26名攻读生物科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得最多八个学期/四个学年的奖学金支持。为确保学生成功走上职业道路，该项目将采用实践社区模式（队列）和导师网络（资深同行、教师和学术顾问），并将资金与基于证据的学术和课外活动相结合，以促进学生的成功和在劳动力市场的竞争力。互补性实施旨在增强包容性氛围下的自我归属感和科学认同感，转化为更高的学生参与度、学习成绩、毅力和学位完成度。学者们的学术观点、理解科学发现的能力和科学沟通技巧，通过积极参与期刊俱乐部、本科生研究经历的实验室课程和研究实习而形成，将丰富他们的专业发展，并为国际金融大学的智力环境做出贡献。该项目旨在确保26名历史上被边缘化的学生感到被包容和重视，并属于他们的学术团体。作为回报，这些学者将能够进入劳动力市场，准备好带来他们不同的经验，并在不同的团队中工作，目标是为与气候变化、生物恢复、流行病爆发有关的全球问题制定新的解决方案，并培养一代科学教育者。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标是：(1)实施有效的生物学课程，即课堂量化生物学（QBIC），其特点是：强调对主要文献的批判性分析，将数学技能融入实验生物学，并使用本科学习助理来加强STEM学者的学术和专业培训；(2)在包容的氛围下，通过促进基于小群体的学习小组、导师网络和研究经验，增强学者的自我归属感和科学认同感；(3)在项目早期实施新颖的职业发展模块，并生成纵向数据，确定这些实施对学生成功的影响；(4)通过微认证专业培训提升STEM核心能力。在逻辑模型的指导下，将使用混合方法对项目进行形成性和总结性评估。评价小组将每年收集关于项目活动的质量、效力和影响的数量和质量数据。项目研究结果将在科学教育会议上向STEM社区传播，并编写手稿在科学教育期刊上发表。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 Florida International University (FIU). FIU is a public Carnegie R1 Research and Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to a total of 26 unique full-time students through two cohorts who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological Sciences. First-year students will receive up to eight semesters/ four academic years of scholarship support. To ensure successful student career pathways, the project will use a community of practice model (cohort) and a network of mentorship (senior peers, faculty, and academic advisors), and will integrate funding with evidence-based academic and co-curricular activities to promote student success and competitiveness in the workforce. Complementary implementations are designed to enhance self-belonging and science identity under an atmosphere of inclusiveness, translating into higher student engagement, academic performance, persistence, and degree completion. The scholars’ academic perspective, ability to comprehend scientific findings, and scientific communication skills, formalized by active engagement in journal clubs, lab courses for undergraduate research experiences, and research internships, will enrich their professional development and contribute to the FIU intellectual environment. This project aims to ensure that 26 historically marginalized students feel included and valued, and that they belong within their academic communities. In return, these scholars will be able to enter the workforce prepared to bring their diverse experiences and work in diverse teams with the goal of developing new solutions for global concerns related to biological degradation by climate change, biological restoration, pandemic outbreaks, and building the generation of science educators.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project specific aims are: (1) to implement an effective biology curriculum, the Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC), which features: emphasis in critical analyses of primary literature, integration of math skills into experimental biology, and the use of undergraduate learning assistants to enhance the academic and professional training of STEM scholars; (2) to enhance self-belonging and science identity of scholars under an atmosphere of inclusiveness by facilitating small cohort-based learning groups, mentorship networks, and research experiences; (3) to implement novel career development modules during the program’s early years, and generate longitudinal data determining the effect of these implementations on student success; and (4) to enhance core STEM competencies through micro-credential professional training. A mixed-methods approach will be used for the formative and summative evaluation of the project guided by a logic model. The evaluation team will conduct annual collections of quantitative and qualitative data on the quality, effectiveness, and impacts of project activities. Project findings will be disseminated to the STEM community at science education conferences, and prepared in manuscripts for publication in science education 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.