CityLab and Urban Squash: A New Pathway to Achieve STEM Success

 描述(由申请者提供)：波士顿大学医学院新的SEPA项目，题为“城市实验室和城市壁球：实现STEM成功的新途径”，特别针对SMRB的要求，即“NIH的大学前STEM活动需要恢复活力，综合关注生物医学劳动力的准备，并特别考虑代表不足的少数族裔。”CityLab大约三分之一的参与者是代表不足的少数族裔(URM)学生，但我们现在有一个独特的机会来建立一个将接触到许多URM学生的项目，并让他们为本科STEM成功奠定基础。我们与波士顿(SquashBuster)和纽约(CitySquash和StreetSquash)的城市壁球教育组织合作，这些组织招收URM/Low SES学生参加课后壁球培训和学术充实计划。我们还与全国城市壁球和教育协会(NUSEA)合作，首先从波士顿到纽约，然后通过其附属的全国壁球教育计划网络传播新计划。为了使这个项目取得成果，波士顿大学将加入 与纽约福特汉姆大学的军队合作。福特汉姆是CitySquash的所在地，因此这些组织为纽约的活动提供了理想的基地。拟议的项目将使我们能够在这笔赠款的5年范围内证明其可行性和可复制性。我们的共同愿景是开发一个全国性的非正式大学前生物医学科学教育模式，可以注入到无数类似的运动/学术充实项目中。城市青年壁球教育运动在招收计划毕业生进入大学方面取得了很大成功。由于壁球教育项目的学术课程侧重于英语语言艺术和数学，他们的学生与科学作斗争，很少认识到在STEM领域长期就业的巨大机会。该项目将把CityLab的资源用于当地的壁球项目，以协调和持续的方式向学生介绍STEM，特别是生物医学科学。我们将与城市壁球中心一起，在CityLab开发和广泛传播的实践生命科学经验的基础上，创造涉及运动和生理学的引人入胜的实验室体验。拟议项目的具体目标是：(1)开发、实施和评估新的伙伴关系模式，以招收URM/LOW SES学生，并激励他们在STEM追求职业生涯；(2)检查参与该计划的学生的理科学习者身份(SLI)的变化，并将这一指标作为继续参与STEM的标志。在两所城市研究型大学、三个当地壁球教育项目和国家科学教育研究所的参与下，我们将这一新的SEPA倡议视为试点、完善和传播课外/非正式科学教育项目的独特方式，该项目可以对全国培养具有URM/Low SES背景的有才华的STEM毕业生产生重大影响。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Boston University School of Medicine's new SEPA project, entitled "CityLab and Urban Squash: A New Pathway to Achieve STEM Success," specifically addresses the SMRB's imperative that "NIH's pre-college STEM activities need a rejuvenated integrated focus on biomedical workforce preparedness with special considerations for under-represented minorities." Approximately one-third of CityLab's participants are under- represented minority (URM) students, but we now have a unique opportunity to build a program that will reach many URM students and position them for undergraduate STEM success. We have partnered with urban squash education organizations in Boston (SquashBusters) and New York (CitySquash and StreetSquash) that recruit URM/low SES students to participate in afterschool squash training and academic enrichment programs. We have also partnered with the National Urban Squash and Education Association (NUSEA) to disseminate the new program- first from Boston to New York and later through its national network of affiliated squash education programs. In order to bring this project to fruition, Boston University is joining forces with Fordham University in New York. Fordham is home to CitySquash so these organizations provide an ideal base for the New York activities. The proposed project will enable us to demonstrate feasibility and replicability within the 5 year scope of this grant. Our shared vision is to develop a national model for informal precollege biomedical science education that can be infused into a myriad of similar athletic/academic enrichment programs. The squash education movement for urban youth has been highly successful in enrolling program graduates in college. Since the academic offerings of the squash education programs focus on English Language Arts and Mathematics, their students struggle with science and rarely recognize the tremendous opportunities for long- term employment in STEM fields. This project will bring CityLab's resources to local squash programs in a coordinated and sustained engagement to introduce students to STEM, specifically the biomedical sciences. Together with the urban squash centers, we will build upon the hands-on life science experiences developed and widely disseminated by CityLab to create engaging laboratory-based experiences involving athletics and physiology. The specific aims of the proposed project are: (1) to develop, implement, and evaluate a new partnership model for recruiting URM/low SES students and inspiring them to pursue careers in STEM and (2) to examine changes in the science learner identities (SLI) of the students who participate in this program and establish this metric as a marker for continued engagement in STEM. With the involvement of the two urban research universities, three local squash education programs, and NUSEA, we see this new SEPA initiative as a unique way to pilot, refine, and disseminate an after- school/informal science education program that can have a significant impact on the nation's production of talented STEM graduates from URM/low SES backgrounds.