Engaging Community Colleges Students through a Residential, Pre-transfer Summer Research Program

通过住宿转学前暑期研究计划吸引社区学院的学生

• 批准号: 2225729
• 负责人: Thomas Targett
• 金额: $ 37.55万
• 依托单位: Sonoma State University
• 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: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225729&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Engaging; Community; Colleges; Students; through

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to develop a collaboration between Sonoma State University (SSU), a four-year primarily undergraduate institution, and two community colleges, Mendocino College and Santa Rosa Junior College, to engage community college students in research experiences at SSU prior to applying for transfer. Transfer students can face a number of challenges as they move to 4-year institutions, which can hinder success in STEM disciplines. The project will bring two cohorts of ten community college students each year for a five-week residential research experience. Participants will also take part in professional and social activities to build a strong cohort and promote students’ sense of belonging. Existing connections between the Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Achievement (MESA) programs at all three institutions will allow the project to recruit diverse participants, including first generation students and students from populations that have been historically underrepresented in STEM.Community colleges generally serve more diverse populations than 4-year institutions, yet at many institutions nationwide, students from minority populations often transfer at lower rates than their peers. Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice that has been shown to provide a rich, engaging experience for students that can drive greater equity in student retention and overall success. This project will generate new knowledge by exploring how a 5-week, pre-transfer research experience that includes cohort building activities impacts the sense of belonging and STEM self-efficacy of community college students. The project will also collect data on how the project model contributes to students’ later decision to transfer and pursue a 4-year degree. The core project model will be disseminated to communities of interest as an example of how 2- and 4-year institutions can collaborate to increase student engagement and persistence in STEM. Project evaluation will use student and faculty data to assess the effectiveness and implementation of project components while examining the scalability of the project model with an eye towards future expansion. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity, more generally, at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这个Track 1项目旨在发展索诺马州立大学(SSU)和两所社区学院-门多西诺学院和圣罗莎初级学院-之间的合作，让社区大学生在申请转学之前在SSU参与研究体验。转学学生在转到四年制院校时可能会面临许多挑战，这可能会阻碍他们在STEM专业取得成功。该项目每年将带来两批10名社区大学生，进行为期五周的住宿研究体验。参与者还将参加专业和社会活动，以建立强大的队伍，促进学生的归属感。所有三所院校的数学、科学和工程成就(MESA)项目之间的现有联系将使该项目能够招收不同的参与者，包括第一代学生和来自STEM历史上代表性不足的人群的学生。社区大学通常比四年制院校服务的人群更多样化，但在全国许多机构，来自少数族裔的学生的转化率往往低于他们的同龄人。本科生研究是一种高影响力的实践，已被证明为学生提供了丰富的、引人入胜的体验，可以在留学生和总体成功方面推动更大的公平。本项目将通过探索为期5周的转学前研究经验(包括队列建设活动)如何影响社区大学生的归属感和STEM自我效能来产生新知识。该项目还将收集有关项目模式如何有助于学生日后决定转学并攻读4年制学位的数据。核心项目模式将向感兴趣的社区传播，作为两年制和四年制院校如何合作以提高学生在STEM中的参与度和坚持性的范例。项目评估将使用学生和教师的数据来评估项目组成部分的有效性和实施情况，同时检查项目模型的可扩展性，着眼于未来的扩展。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。鉴于高等教育机构的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法，以激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究(I)关于参与式学生学习，(Ii)关于如何使STEM多样化并有效地增加参与，以及(Iii)提高我们对如何建设更广泛的高等教育机构的机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将从这些方法中获得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。