HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Improving Professional Preparedness in STEM

HSI 实施和评估项目：提高 STEM 专业准备

• 批准号: 2225210
• 负责人: Karin Kram
• 金额: $ 49.99万
• 依托单位: California State University-Dominguez Hills Foundation
• 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: 2022-08-15 至 2027-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225210&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: HSI; Implementation; Evaluation; Project; Improving

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP aims to increase the number of students from California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) who enter the STEM field after graduating. Multiple groups, including those who identify as Latinx, are underrepresented in STEM careers; while Latinx individuals comprise 17% of the working population, they are only 8% of STEM workers. CSUDH is poised to help close this gap because CSUDH serves a student population that is approximately 70% Latinx. Many STEM education initiatives have focused on increasing the graduation rates of STEM students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups. However, graduating with a STEM degree does not necessarily mean students will enter STEM fields for their careers. For example, currently, only 11% of students in the CSUDH Biology department graduate with a job offer or acceptance to graduate or professional school. To increase this number, the project will increase equitable access to and participation in internships, integrate career-focused content throughout the curriculum and add career development conversations to disciplinary-specific advising. Through these initiatives, students will develop a professional identity earlier in their academic careers and strengthen the skills needed to enter a STEM career after graduation. Ultimately, the project will increase the number of students from underrepresented groups entering STEM fields.The immediate objective is to increase the professional preparedness of these students in order to increase their return on investment in college and to diversify the regional STEM workforce. The project will use a multi-faceted approach to help students better realize their professional goals by ensuring that more students engage deeply in internships and/or research opportunities, include more career and professional skill development in courses, implement inclusive advising, and increase participation in student clubs. It is hypothesized that how students think about their career pathways will affect whether they have concrete career plans when they graduate, student retention, and time to graduation. To test these hypotheses, the project will utilize mixed-model assessments and grounded theory to analyze data collected throughout students’ academic careers to understand how students form their career plans. This project will expand the metrics of student success to not only include persistence to a degree or transition to graduate school, but also to “path to career.” In doing so, the project will provide much-needed research on one understudied aspect of underrepresented minority groups in STEM: how students conceptualize their pathway to a career. More generally, the biology department will serve as an incubator for best practices in developing STEM career identity. Once it is better understood how students conceptualize their career pathways, and which interventions positively affect career-focused outcomes, the project results will be disseminated through on-campus forums and peer-reviewed journal articles, and conference presentations. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.

在“改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构”（HSI计划）的支持下，第二轨：IEP旨在增加加州州立大学多明格斯山分校（CSUDH）毕业后进入STEM领域的学生数量。包括拉丁裔在内的多个群体在STEM职业中代表性不足；虽然拉丁裔占劳动人口的17%，但他们只占STEM工作者的8%。CSUDH准备帮助缩小这一差距，因为CSUDH为大约70%的学生提供拉丁裔服务。许多STEM教育计划的重点是提高STEM学生的毕业率，特别是那些来自历史上被边缘化群体的学生。然而，获得STEM学位并不一定意味着学生将进入STEM领域从事职业。例如，目前只有11%的CSUDH生物系学生毕业后获得了研究生或专业学校的工作邀请或录取。为了增加这一数字，该项目将增加公平获得和参与实习的机会，在整个课程中纳入以职业为重点的内容，并在特定学科的建议中增加职业发展对话。通过这些举措，学生将在他们的学术生涯中更早地发展专业身份，并加强毕业后进入STEM职业所需的技能。最终，该项目将增加来自代表性不足群体的学生进入STEM领域的人数。当前的目标是提高这些学生的专业准备，以增加他们在大学的投资回报，并使区域STEM劳动力多样化。该项目将采用多方面的方法，通过确保更多的学生深入参与实习和/或研究机会，在课程中纳入更多的职业和专业技能发展，实施包容性建议，并增加学生俱乐部的参与，帮助学生更好地实现他们的职业目标。据推测，学生如何看待他们的职业道路将影响他们毕业时是否有具体的职业规划，学生保留率和毕业时间。为了验证这些假设，该项目将利用混合模型评估和扎根理论来分析在学生的学术生涯中收集的数据，以了解学生如何形成他们的职业规划。这个项目将扩大学生成功的衡量标准，不仅包括坚持到学位或过渡到研究生院，还包括“通往职业的道路”。通过这样做，该项目将为STEM中代表性不足的少数群体的一个未被充分研究的方面提供急需的研究：学生如何概念化他们的职业道路。更广泛地说，生物系将成为培养STEM职业认同的最佳实践的孵化器。一旦更好地了解了学生如何概念化他们的职业道路，以及哪些干预措施对以职业为中心的结果有积极影响，项目结果将通过校园论坛、同行评审的期刊文章和会议报告进行传播。HSI计划旨在加强HSI的本科STEM教育和能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。