HSI Pilot Project: San Antonio College’s Campeones de STEM

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，该第1轨道试点项目旨在通过开发导师机会和奖学金，提高大学生在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）课程中的招聘，参与和课程保留。该项目对于满足和满足大圣安东尼奥地区和国家地区高需求，高薪STEM相关工作的指数需求至关重要。重要的是，鉴于STEM学位获得方面持续存在的种族和民族不平等，西班牙裔和低收入STEM专业的持续率较低，现在是解决STEM相关意识差距的时候了中学到高等教育和过渡到大学。为了解决这些问题，我们的项目将为一年级学生提供领导机会，并由行业和学术专家就STEM知识传播策略进行培训，重点关注目标受众，即来自类似社会经济背景的中学生。我们的项目目标包括建立一个为期两天的圣安东尼奥学院（SAC）STEM课程培训学院，旨在振兴和加强SAC现有的STEM课程。STEM课程培训计划的主要目标是提高学生在SAC STEM课程中的参与度和课程保留率，同时丰富目标中学的STEM教育。该项目将提供奖学金，以选定的STEM专业的学生目前就读于他们的第一年在学院。这个机会将使这些选定的Campeones de STEM参与者与SAC服务区内的一所市中心中学的选定普通科学课程配对。项目活动包括现场和场外活动，例如与当地和知名STEM领导人的访问，动手科学实验，实地考察当地STEM中心和博物馆，以及参观SAC STEM部门，教室和实验室。预期成果包括增加学生在STEM课程中的保留率，以及大大增加中学生对STEM教育的参与。我们的项目目标将调查以下研究问题：1）SAC的Campeones de STEM学院是否显著提高了STEM意识，从而提高了大学一年级学生的课程参与度、持续性和PGR？2)对中等教育学生的STEM推广是否有效地提高了他们对STEM领域的兴趣？3）非正式的STEM相关活动，包括由大学STEM教师设计的动手科学实验，以及指导，是否改善了STEM中基于榜样的同伴学习努力，并导致STEM课程参与率和大学一年级学生保留率的逐步增加？用于评估这些问题的研究方法将包括从定量和定性数据汇编的特定指标。预期成果包括提高中学生和大学一年级学生对STEM领域的普遍认识和兴趣，提高SAC参与者的坚持率、生产率和课程完成率，并通过非正式教育活动和辅导发展中学生的STEM相关技能。 除了提高学术价值外，该项目还具有通过同行学习和领导作用在社会层面产生更广泛影响的潜力。该项目通过有意的干预策略进行宣传，例如接触以STEM为重点的内容，与当地的互动，STEM领导者，奖学金驱动的辅导计划，以及与学校资源贫乏的人群的点对点机会。重要的是，Campeones de STEM项目还将成为第二轨道跨机构社区计划的基础，以提高STEM领域的入学率和保留率。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，并建立HSI的能力。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NSF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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 Pilot Project aims to enhance college student recruitment, participation, and course retention in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-focused courses through the development of mentorship opportunities and scholarships. The project will be critical for meeting and fulfilling exponential demands in high-demand, high paying STEM related jobs in the greater San Antonio area and the national region. Importantly, given that persistent racial and ethnic inequality in STEM degree attainment, with lower persistence rates of Hispanic, and low-income STEM majors, it is timely to address STEM-related awareness gaps in secondary-to-higher education and transition to college. To solve these problems, our project will provide leadership opportunities to first-year students, with training from industry and academic experts on STEM-knowledge dissemination strategies to focused target audiences namely, secondary school children from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Our project goals will include the establishment of a San Antonio College (SAC) Campeones de STEM Academy, a two-day institute designed to invigorate and enhance SAC’s existing STEM programs.The principal goal of Campeones de STEM initiative is to improve student participation and course retention in STEM courses at SAC, while enriching secondary STEM education at a target middle school. The project will provide scholarships to selected STEM major students currently enrolled in their first year at the college. This opportunity will pair these selected Campeones de STEM participants with selected general science courses at an inner-city middle school in SAC’s service-area. Project activities include on- and off-site events, such as visits with local and renowned STEM leaders, hands-on science experiments, and field trips to local STEM centers and museums as well as a tour of the SAC STEM departments, classrooms, and laboratories. Expected outcomes include increased student retention in STEM courses and significantly greater involvement of secondary school children in STEM education. Our project aims will investigate the following research questions: 1) Does SAC’s Campeones de STEM Academy significantly improve STEM awareness, and thereby, course participation, persistence, and PGR in first-year college students? 2) Is STEM outreach to secondary education students effective in improving interest in the STEM fields? and 3) Do informal STEM-related activities, including hands-on science experiments designed by college STEM faculty, and mentoring improve role model-based peer-learning endeavors in STEM and result in an incremental increase in STEM course participation and retention in first-year college students? Research methodologies used to asses these questions will include specified metrics compiled from quantitative and qualitative data. Expected results include an increase in general awareness and interest in the STEM fields for both secondary middle school students and first-year college students, higher rates of persistence, productive grade rate (PGR), and course completion for the SAC participants, and the development of the secondary school students’ STEM-related skills through informal educational activities and mentorship. Apart from improved academic merits, this project has potential for broader impacts at a societal-level via its peer-to-peer learning and leadership roles. This project is informed via intentional intervention strategies, such as exposure to STEM-focused content, interactions with the local area, STEM leaders, scholarship driven mentoring programs, and peer-to-peer opportunities with resource-poor setting populations in their schools. Importantly, Campeones de STEM project will also form the basis for a track 2 cross-institutional, community program to improve enrollment and retention rates in the STEM fields. 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.