DEM-Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE): Linking Undergraduate Female Students in SMET Fields and Female Faculty Mentors

马里兰大学正在测试一项教育干预计划，旨在解决女性在科学和工程领域取得成功和坚持不懈的外部(背景)和内部(基于个人)障碍。该项目名为RISE：科学与工程研究实习，为新生(一级)提供实践入门课程，并为高年级学生(二级)提供增强的团队研究体验。增强的团队体验包括参与全女性研究团队，由女性教职员工和高级女性学生(本科生和研究生)指导，她们获得报酬并接受培训，以便对本科女性进行重要的指导和教学。这位女教员自己的研究项目是学生团队合作和指导的环境。具体地说，干预措施针对的是外部因素，即科学的“寒冷气候”，缺乏女性榜样和导师，以及在MMET学术部门的学生和教职员工中缺乏女性“临界群体”。关于“内部障碍”，我们认为低估能力是通过“自我效能感”实现的，这是理解SMET本科专业学生与职业选择和坚持相关的矛盾心理的最有用的心理结构。自我效能感描述了学生在不同的学术追求(例如，他们是否会做数学)时对自己的个人能力形成信念的概念。自我效能感一直是职业文献中大量发现的基础，其中大部分集中在低自我效能感对包括工程和科学领域在内的职业选择和持久性的削弱作用。女性教职员工在指导年轻女性方面得到支持(在培训和经济方面)，同时在自己的研究项目中取得进展。整个研究团队(由教员、RISE研究员和最多四名RISE参与者组成)正在参加关于导师、团队运作和心理结构的培训，这些培训对于增强女性学生的成功学习至关重要。这一示范项目有可能将以女性学院为代表的全女性学习环境的一些优势带到更主流的高等教育中，如马里兰大学学院园区。可复制的功能包括：榜样层次结构、导师培训和全女性研究团队。同样可复制的是两级项目的概念，首先是让女大学生兴奋并为进入大学做准备的前端体验，然后是后来的长期研究实习，涉及到与成功的女科学家和工程师的密切接触。

The University of Maryland is testing an educational intervention program designed to address aspects of both external (contextual) and internal (individually based) barriers to success and persistence of women in science and engineering. The program -- called RISE: Research Internships in Science and Engineering -- offers a hands-on introductory orientation program for freshmen (Level One) and an enhanced team research experience for upper class students (Level Two) . The enhanced team experience consists of participation in all-female research teams, mentoring by female faculty members and advanced female students (undergraduates and graduate students) who are paid and trained to perform significant mentoring and teaching of undergraduate women. The female faculty member's own research program is the setting for the student teamwork and mentoring.Specifically, the intervention addresses the external factors of the "chilly climate" of science, the lack of female role models and mentors, and the lack of a female "critical mass" among students and faculty in SMET academic departments. Regarding "internal barriers," we identify underestimation of abilities as operationalized by "self-efficacy" as the most useful psychological construct for understanding the ambivalence related to career choice and persistence in SMET undergraduate majors. Self-efficacy describes the notion that students develop beliefs about their personal capabilities at different academic pursuits (e.g., whether or not they can "do math"). Self-efficacy has been the basis for a large body of findings in the vocational literature, much of it focusing on the debilitating effects of low self-efficacy on the selection and persistence of career options including engineering and science fields.Female faculty are supported in their mentoring of young women (both in terms of training and finances), and at the same time make progress in their own research program. The entire research team (consisting of the faculty member, RISE Fellows and up to four RISE participants) is taking part in training on mentorship, team functioning, and psychological constructs key to enhancing the successful learning of women studentsThis demonstration program has the potential to bring some of the advantages of an all-female learning environment, epitomized by women's colleges, into more mainstream higher education such as the University of Maryland College Park. Replicable features include: role model hierarchies, mentor training, and all-female research teams. Also replicable is the notion of a two level program, beginning with a front end experience that excites and prepares entering female college students, moving on to an extended research internship in the later years that involves close contact with successful woman scientists and engineers.