Scaffolding Undergraduate Curriculum and Career Exploration for Science Success

威斯康星州洛克罗斯的维特博大学利用美国国家科学、技术、工程和数学项目(S-STEM)奖学金项目的资金，将为低收入、有才华的农村学生改善STEM地区的教育机会，帮助这些学生帮助应对当前美国面临的许多全球环境和生态挑战。S-STEM能力建设项目将颁发奖学金，并为生物学或环境生物学专业的两个队列各11名学生提供社区和学术支持。该项目的基本动力将是招收、招生、留住、准备和毕业更多的生物科学专业，特别是来自农村地区的生物科学专业，用于就业或科学研究生课程。研究人员将通过以下方式为学生的成功提供资源：(A)经济、社区和学术支持；(B)传统和尖端科学知识和技能；(C)通过实习和研究机会获得现实世界中的工作经验；以及(D)过渡到STEM劳动力或相关科学领域的研究生课程所需的具体资源。项目小组将实施、研究和评估支架式方法，其中将包括：(I)为学生提供早期的学术干预，以帮助克服准备工作中的不足；(Ii)通过社会激励和职业倡导，留住理科学生直到毕业；(Iii)为学生提供相关的、影响较大的经验，包括跟踪工作、实习和本科生研究经验；以及(Iv)为经过充分准备的理科毕业生提供就业机会或在其目标领域的继续教育。为了评估和增进对各种活动的影响的了解，特别是对农村学生的影响，项目组将使用定性和定量混合方法研究方法来调查和衡量各种影响变量，包括财政和其他支助机会。该计划的目的是：促进有才华的低收入农村学生更广泛地参与；在维特博建设能力并实现可持续；以及在服务农村人口的类似机构可复制。

With funds from NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) program, Viterbo University in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, will improve educational opportunities in STEM areas for low-income, talented rural students by preparing these students to help address the many current global environmental and ecological challenges that face the United States. This S-STEM Capacity Building project will award scholarships and provide community and academic support to two cohorts of eleven students each for majors in biology or environmental biology. The underlying impetus of the project will be to recruit, enroll, retain, prepare, and graduate more biological sciences majors, especially from rural areas, for employment or graduate programs in the sciences. The investigators will provide resources for student success by providing students with: (a) financial, community, and academic support; (b) traditional and cutting edge scientific knowledge and skills; (c) real world work experiences through internships and research opportunities; and (d) specific resources needed to transition to the STEM workforce or graduate programs in related science fields. The project team will implement, study, and assess a scaffolding approach which will include: (i) early academic interventions for students to help overcome deficits in preparation; (ii) retain science students to graduation through social motivation and professional advocacy; (iii) provide students relevant, high impact experiences including job shadowing, internships and undergraduate research experiences, and (iv) Graduate well-prepared science students and assist them in obtaining employment or further education in their target field. To evaluate and advance understanding of the impact of the various activities, specifically concerning rural students, the project team will use a qualitative and quantitative mixed-methods research approach to investigate and measure a variety of impact variables including financial and the other support opportunities. The program has been designed to: promote broadening participation for talented, low-income rural students; build capacity and be sustainable at Viterbo; and be replicable at similar institutions that serve rural populations.