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

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个Track 1项目旨在发展索诺玛州立大学（SSU）之间的合作，这是一所四年制本科院校，以及两所社区学院，门多西诺学院和圣罗莎初级学院，让社区学院的学生在申请转学之前参与SSU的研究经历。转学生在转到四年制大学时可能会面临许多挑战，这可能会阻碍他们在STEM学科上取得成功。该项目每年将为两组10名社区大学生提供为期五周的住宿研究体验。学员还将参加专业和社会活动，建立强大的群体，增强学生的归属感。这三所大学的数学、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募不同的参与者，包括第一代学生和历史上在STEM中代表性不足的学生。社区大学通常比四年制大学招收的学生更多样化，但在全国范围内的许多大学里，少数族裔学生的转学率往往低于同龄人。本科生研究是一种高影响力的实践，已被证明可以为学生提供丰富，引人入胜的体验，可以促进学生保留和整体成功的更大公平性。该项目将通过探索包括队列建设活动在内的为期5周的转移前研究经历如何影响社区大学生的归属感和STEM自我效能感，从而产生新的知识。该项目还将收集有关项目模式如何影响学生后来转学并攻读四年制学位的决定的数据。核心项目模式将传播给感兴趣的社区，作为2年制和4年制院校如何合作以提高学生对STEM的参与度和持久性的一个例子。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，并着眼于未来的扩展。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。考虑到hsi的多样性和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及(3)提高我们对如何在hsi建立更普遍的机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将借鉴这些方法，为如何实现这些目标提供新的知识。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。

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.