Expanding the Scientific Workforce in the Rural Regions of the Greater South Through Scholarships, Belonging, and Community Investment

该项目将通过支持在亨德里克斯学院（Hendrix College）表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，为满足国家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。亨德里克斯学院是一所文理学院，位于阿肯色州中部，主要为南部农村地区的学生提供服务。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为28名攻读生物学、生物化学和分子生物学、化学、化学物理、计算机科学、数学和物理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。符合条件的一年级学生将获得四年奖学金，进入亨德里克斯学院学习STEM学科。除了获得奖学金外，学生还将与教师导师密切合作，并在共享课程中相互合作，参加旨在培养科学归属感和参与感的同伴指导计划，获得实习和研究机会，与专业科学家交谈，并进行以stem为主题的社区项目。与阿肯色州创新中心合作，奖学金项目参与者将设计和执行一个项目，以解决学生确定的社区挑战。学生们将利用他们的科学技能和与南方农村地区的联系，考虑如何为社区的创新经济做出贡献，以支持该地区的基础设施和其他科学需求。该项目旨在促进对战略的理解，以便将有才华的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员留在该国最需要他们的技能的地区。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。有四个具体目标：1)招收、保留和毕业3批拥有科学学科学士学位的低收入学生；2)评估一个基于科学的社区项目在帮助学者在农村环境中建立与公民参与相关的专业科学身份方面的有效性；3)扩大教师与来自缺乏服务背景的学生的接触；4)评估强调成长心态的深度教学专业发展计划在改变教师思维方式和教学指导方法方面的有效性。该项目旨在扩大现有的教学和指导方法，以最好地吸引农村和低收入背景的学生参与科学事业，并确定如何在培训后将他们留在当地社区。先前的研究表明，教师是有限经济背景的学生是否坚持科学学科的主要决定因素，而那些对学生持成长型心态的人，对坚持有积极影响。深度教学专业发展是一种密集的、反思的方法，可以导致整体心态的改变，但与成长心态训练相结合的效果却鲜为人知。此外，科学身份的发展对科学学科的坚持至关重要，但很少有研究涉及如何在农村环境中发展与公民参与相关的身份。该项目将调查旨在增强教师成长型思维的深度教学专业发展经验如何影响他们的教学、咨询和指导方法。它还将评估在入学第一年接受成长心态培训的教师导师如何影响归属感、自我效能感和适应力。最后，它将调查参与基于科学的社区项目如何影响身份、自我效能、公民参与和复原力。该项目有可能促进对如何支持和留住需要创新科学解决方案的农村地区科学劳动力中受过训练的人才的理解。该项目将采用混合方法进行评估，以衡量成长心态、归属感、适应力和公民参与。该项目的结果将提供给亨德里克斯校园，全州和全国各级组织的不同利益相关者。具体来说，结果将被分发给阿肯色州的中学和高等教育工作者以及州立法机构成员，以提出影响该州的重要问题。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 Hendrix College. Hendrix College is a liberal arts college situated in central Arkansas and primarily serves students in the rural regions of the South. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biochemistry & molecular biology, chemistry, chemical physics, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Eligible first-year students will receive four-year scholarships to attend Hendrix College and pursue the STEM disciplines. In addition to receiving scholarships, students will engage closely with faculty mentors and each other in shared coursework, participate in a peer mentoring program designed to foster a sense of belonging and engagement in the sciences, receive internship and research opportunities, converse with professional scientists, and undertake a STEM-themed community project. In partnership with the Arkansas Innovation Hub, scholarship program participants will design and execute a project that addresses student-identified community challenges. Students will leverage their scientific skill sets and connections to the rural places of the South to consider how they can contribute to the innovation economy in their communities to bolster infrastructure and other scientific needs in the region. This project seeks to advance the understanding of strategies to retain talented scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians in areas of the country that most need their skill sets. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are four specific aims: 1) Recruit, retain, and graduate 3 cohorts of low-income students with a baccalaureate degree in the scientific disciplines, 2) Evaluate the effectiveness of a science-based community project in helping scholars develop a professional scientific identity tied to civic engagement in a rural context, 3) Expand engagement of faculty with students from underserved backgrounds, and 4) Evaluate the effectiveness of a deep teaching professional development program emphasizing growth mindset in changing faculty mindsets and approaches about teaching and mentoring. The project seeks to expand what is known about teaching and mentoring approaches that best engage students from rural and low-income backgrounds in the scientific endeavor and determine how to retain them in their local communities following training. Prior research demonstrates that faculty are major determinants of whether students from limited economic backgrounds persist in the scientific disciplines, and those that take a growth mindset about students, positively impact persistence. Deep teaching professional development is an intensive, reflective approach that can lead to overall mindset changes, but little is known about its efficacy when combined with growth mindset training. Additionally, development of a scientific identity is critical to persistence in the scientific disciplines, but few studies have addressed how to develop an identity that is tied to civic engagement in a rural context. The project will investigate how a deep teaching professional development experience designed to enhance growth mindset in faculty affects their approaches to teaching, advising, and mentoring. It will also evaluate how having a faculty mentor trained in growth mindset in the first year of matriculation impacts feelings of belonging, self-efficacy, and resilience. Finally, it will investigate how participation in a science-based community project impacts identity, self-efficacy, civic engagement, and resilience. This project has the potential to advance understanding of how to support and retain talented trained individuals in the scientific workforce in the rural areas of the country that require innovative scientific solutions. This project will be evaluated using a mixed method approach that measures growth mindset, a sense of belonging, resilience, and civic engagement. Results of this project will be made available to diverse stakeholders at multiple levels of organization on the Hendrix campus, state-wide, and nationally. Specifically, results will be disseminated to Arkansas secondary and postsecondary educators and members of state legislature to raise important issues that impact the state. 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.