Sophomore Fast-Forward: A Summer Bridge Program to Support Retention in Engineering

路易斯安那理工大学的国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)项目将提高机械、生物医学和土木工程专业学生的及时学士学位完成率。该计划的总体目标是增加工程技术的留存，从而增加STEM毕业生准备进入劳动力大军并取得成功的人数。该项目为表现出学术天赋和经济需求的大二新生提供奖学金。支持包括参加一个全日制的暑期课程，在这个课程中，学生们将参加一些通常在秋季学期上的必修工程和数学课程。这种方法将为这一高风险群体提供更顺利地过渡到更困难的工程课程的机会。该计划将包括专业和学生发展活动，以及来自教师的指导。为低收入和有学术天赋的学生提供奖学金和支持，这些学生可能无法获得工程学学位，这将有助于培养一支训练有素的STEM劳动力队伍，为国家的经济福祉做出贡献。该项目的基础是确定本科工程学课程中的一个关键消耗点。路易斯安那理工大学已经确定，工程静力学课程是许多原本很有前途的学生因表现不佳而离开工程学的时间点。然而，学生在夏季课程期间学习静力学的不及格率大大低于秋季学期。该项目将调查这样一种假设，即鼓励有天赋但有风险的学生在全日制暑期课程中学习静力学，将有助于这些有风险的学生克服本科工程学课程中已确定的消耗点。在关键的大二过渡阶段留住更多的学生将导致更多的STEM毕业生。S-STEM学者团队将由教师团队指导，并参与其他支持活动，包括行业实地考察、专业发展培训和团队建设活动。该项目的调查结果将广泛传播给STEM教育界，并将有助于增加对成功学生奖学金的属性和做法的了解，并为有学术天赋的低收入工程学学生提供支持计划。

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) project at Louisiana Technological University will increase the timely baccalaureate degree completion rate among students majoring in mechanical, biomedical, and civil engineering. The overall objective of the program is to increase engineering retention, leading to an increase in the number of STEM graduates prepared to enter the workforce and be successful. The program offers scholarships for rising sophomores who demonstrate academic talent and financial need. Support includes attendance in a full-time summer session in which students will take some of the required engineering and mathematics courses normally taken during the Fall semester. This approach will provide a smoother transition into more difficult engineering coursework for this at-risk group. This program will include professional and student development activities, as well as mentoring from faculty. Scholarships and support for low-income and academically talented students, who may not otherwise be able to obtain engineering degrees, will help to produce a well-trained STEM workforce that will contribute to the economic well being of the nation.The project is based on the identification of a critical attrition point in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Louisiana Tech has identified the engineering statics course as the point at which many otherwise promising students leave engineering due to poor performance. However, the failure rate for students taking statics during the summer session is substantially lower than for the Fall semester. The project will investigate the hypothesis that encouraging talented but at-risk students to pursue statics during a full-time summer session will facilitate these at-risk students in overcoming this identified attrition point in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Retaining more students in the critical sophomore transition will result in more STEM graduates. The cohorts of S-STEM Scholars will be mentored by a faculty team and participate in other support activities including industry field trips, professional development training and team-building activities. The findings from the program will be disseminated widely to the STEM education community and will help to increase understanding of the attributes and practices of successful student scholarship and support programs for academically talented, low-income engineering students.