Creating Opportunities for Success Through Recruitment, Retention, and Faculty Development

该项目的主要目标是增加进入科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的学生人数，并增加在布法罗州立学院获得STEM学科学士学位的学生人数。我们的项目涉及一系列努力，包括：增加我们的推广和招聘活动，以瞄准地区高中的潜在STEM学生；通过参加为期一年的以“城市环境”为主题的学习社区，吸引和留住对STEM领域感兴趣的未申报学生；利用学院的新生研讨会计划，为有意成为STEM专业的学生和入学时已申报STEM专业的学生提供STEM入门课程；为STEM学生提供大一到大二期间参加暑期研究的机会；为参加STEM入门课程的学生提供更多的支持服务，包括引入数学（从微积分预科到微积分II和统计学）解决问题的课程，并为所有STEM入门课程提供同伴辅导；并提供教师发展机会，以支持对入门课程的实质性修订，从主要的讲座转向引导探究，强调发展解决问题的技能。这个项目的智力价值包括为我们招收和留住学生的教学方法提供了良好的实践和研究基础。我们的评估计划旨在确定我们正在使用的各种活动的影响，我们的结果应该适用于其他希望增加STEM专业留用率的人。我们也在关注教师发展的各种努力，我们对项目这方面的评估应该有助于加深我们对教师在促进学生成功方面所起作用的理解。该项目更广泛的影响包括通过我们努力提高布法罗州立学院STEM专业的留校率和毕业率来解决国家对STEM毕业生的需求。我们的学习社区的重点是“城市环境”，应该吸引不同的学生受众，也应该促进代表性不足的学生更多地参与STEM项目。传播计划为其他学校的教师提供了一个学习我们经验的机会。将在本拟议项目接近结束时举行的区域讲习班应促进本区域内教员和机构之间分享最佳做法。另外两所目前获得NSF-STEP奖励的大学也被纳入其中，这将有助于更广泛地传播项目成果。

The primary goal of this project is to increase the number of students entering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors and to increase the number of students receiving baccalaureate degrees in STEM disciplines at Buffalo State College. Our project involves a combination of efforts including: increasing our outreach and recruitment activities in order to target prospective STEM students in area high schools; attracting and retaining undeclared students interested in STEM fields through their participation in a year-long learning community with the theme "the urban environment"; taking advantage of the College's Freshman Seminar Program to offer introductory STEM courses for students interested in becoming STEM majors and for students who entered the college with a declared STEM major; providing STEM students with opportunities to participate in summer research between their freshman and sophomore years; increasing the support services available to students enrolled in introductory STEM courses by introducing problem-solving sessions in math (pre-calculus through calculus II and statistics) and peer tutoring for all introductory STEM courses; and providing faculty development opportunities to support substantive revision to introductory courses to shift from primarily lecture to guided inquiry with an emphasis on developing problem-solving skills. The intellectual merit of this project includes the sound practices and research base for the pedagogical approach we are taking to recruit and retain students. Our evaluation plan is designed to determine the impact of the various activities we are using, and our results should be applicable to others desiring to increase the retention of STEM majors. We also are focusing on a variety of faculty development efforts and our assessment of this aspect of our project should help advance our understanding of the role faculty play in contributing to student success. The broader impacts of this project include addressing the nation's need for STEM graduates through our efforts to increase the retention and graduation rates of STEM majors at Buffalo State College. The focus of our learning community, "the urban environment", should appeal to diverse student audiences and should also contribute to greater participation by underrepresented students in STEM programs. The dissemination plan provides an opportunity for faculty at other campuses to learn from our experiences. The regional workshop, to be held near the end of this proposed project, should facilitate sharing best practices among faculty and institutions within this region. The inclusion of two other campuses currently with active NSF-STEP awards should contribute to wider dissemination of project results.