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Hendrix学院有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来促进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。亨德里克斯学院是一所位于阿肯色州中部的文理学院，主要服务于南部农村地区的学生。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为28名正在攻读生物、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，学生们还将在共享课程中与教师导师和彼此密切接触，参与旨在培养对科学的归属感和参与感的同行指导计划，获得实习和研究机会，与专业科学家交谈，并开展以STEM为主题的社区项目。奖学金计划的参与者将与阿肯色州创新中心合作，设计并执行一个项目，以应对学生识别的社区挑战。学生将利用他们的科学技能和与南方农村地区的联系来考虑如何为所在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。这个项目旨在促进对战略的理解，以便在国家最需要他们的技能的地区留住有才华的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。它有四个具体目标：1)招聘、留住和毕业3批拥有科学学科学士学位的低收入学生；2)评估以科学为基础的社区项目在帮助学者发展与农村背景下的公民参与相关的专业科学身份方面的有效性；3)扩大教师与来自贫困背景的学生的接触；以及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对教学和指导的心态和方法方面的有效性。该项目旨在扩大已知的教学和指导方法，使来自农村和低收入背景的学生最好地参与科学工作，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，教师是经济背景有限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心态的学生对坚持不懈有积极的影响。深度教学专业发展是一种密集的、反思性的方法，可以导致整体心态的改变，但人们对其与成长心态培训相结合的效果知之甚少。此外，发展科学认同对于坚持科学学科至关重要，但很少有研究探讨如何在农村背景下发展一种与公民参与挂钩的认同。该项目将调查旨在增强教师成长心态的深度教学专业发展经验如何影响他们的教学、建议和指导方法。它还将评估在预科第一年接受成长思维培训的教师导师如何影响归属感、自我效能感和韧性。最后，它将调查参与以科学为基础的社区项目如何影响认同感、自我效能、公民参与度和韧性。该项目有可能增进人们对如何支持和留住该国农村地区需要创新科学解决方案的科学劳动力中训练有素的人才的理解。该项目将使用混合方法进行评估，衡量增长心态、归属感、复原力和公民参与度。该项目的成果将在亨德里克斯园区、全州和全国范围内提供给不同组织级别的不同利益相关者。具体地说，结果将传播给阿肯色州的中学和中学后教育工作者和州立法机构成员，以提出影响该州的重要问题。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

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.