NSF Includes. FIRST TWO: Improving STEM persistence in the first two years of college.

在科学、技术、工程和数学领域培养和保持一支多元化、创新的劳动力队伍(简称STEM)对美国在世界上的竞争力至关重要，但全国调查显示，美国目前和未来都缺乏高素质的STEM专业人员。造成这一短缺的一个问题是，在所有申报STEM专业的大学生中，超过一半的人在大专教育的头两年辍学或更换专业。这个问题对第一代大学生来说尤为严重。如果我们能将STEM学位毕业率提高25%，我们将占到未来十年所需新增劳动力的75%。我们的项目旨在提高第一代大学生的STEM持久度，重点是西弗吉尼亚州的农村学生。项目合作伙伴包括国家实验室的科学家、大学教师、当地学校系统工作人员、非正式教育工作者、州教育部官员和西弗吉尼亚州的大学生，他们将合作开发暑期和学年活动，以支持STEM专业的年轻本科生。我们将试点的活动包括早期进行科学研究的机会，培养科学、数学和沟通技能的学年课程，以及组建家乡STEM大使；鼓励年轻学生回到家乡学校的本科生STEM学生。我们将研究这些活动对STEM专业学生坚持不懈的影响。我们的项目名为前两年：提高STEM在大学头两年的坚持性(前两年)。技术细节：在开发启动项目期间，合作伙伴将创建并试行两门课程的组件，这两门课程将向二年制和四年制学校的学生授予大学学分。每门课程都将以研发实习为核心。到项目开发试点结束时，头两个课程模块将被整合到国家课程中，并可在社区学院和四年制学校之间转移。前两个课程的一个创新部分是创建家乡的STEM大使--参加这两个课程的学生将准备好指导他们的同龄人，并在他们所在的学区进行外展。他们将向家乡的K-12学生做演讲，并将与当地教育领导讨论STEM大学准备问题。我们相信，将大专学生与他们的家庭社区重新联系起来，并为他们的STEM教育提供基于地点的相关性，将对他们的毅力产生积极影响，并鼓励K-12学生将自己设想为未来的STEM专业人员，这将带来额外的好处。第一，第二，将STEM实习、在线实践社区和STEM技能发展的早期经验整合到一个为一年级学生举办的基于发现的“研究与开发原理”大学研讨会；-通过名为STEM领导力的第二个服务学习课程保持参与度，该课程将发展沟通和指导技能，并培养同伴导师，这些导师将指导年轻学生，加入改变学校STEM教育体验的努力，并在学生期间在家乡社区开展外联活动？二年级和三年级。-确保这些课程或课程材料在全州范围内的采用和转让，并最终在阿巴拉契亚地区和其他拥有大量农村学生人口的州扩大该计划的规模。-与国家实验室合作，确定国家STEM持久性联盟与为FGC学生提供服务的2年制和4年制学校合作的国家实验室实习计划的可行性。最后，有许多研究探讨了与中学后留存和STEM自然减员相关的因素，但主要针对农村学生的研究很少。第一和第二部分将充分阐述一个严谨的教育研究项目，旨在促进对影响农村学生进入STEM职业道路和坚持STEM职业道路的因素的了解。本研究将研究前两个项目对农村FGC学生在STEM专业的坚持性的影响。将开发和验证测试前两项干预措施中提出的组成部分的工具。随着我们将该项目扩展到更大的联盟，研究性学习的规模也将扩大，这将提供一个独特的机会，让教育界了解农村学生的经历。

Developing and maintaining a diverse, innovative workforce in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (known as STEM) is critical to American competitiveness in the world, but national surveys report a current and future shortage of highly qualified STEM professionals in the US. One problem creating this shortage is that more than half of all college students who declare a major in STEM fields drop out or change their majors in the first two years of their post-secondary education. This problem is particularly acute for first generation college students. If we could increase the STEM degree completion rate by just 25%, we would make up 75% of the additional workforce needed over the next decade.Our project aims to increase the STEM persistence of first generation college students and focuses on rural students in West Virginia. Project partners including scientists from National Labs, college faculty, local school system staff, informal educators, State Department of Education officials, and West Virginia college students will collaborate to develop summer and academic year activities that support young undergraduates majoring in STEM. Activities that we will pilot include early opportunities to do science research, academic year courses that develop science, math and communication skills, and the formation of Hometown STEM Ambassadors; undergraduate STEM students that encourage younger students back in their hometown schools. We will study the impact of these activities on students' persistence in STEM majors. Our Project is called FIRST TWO: Improving STEM Persistence in the First Two Years of College (FIRST TWO).Technical Details:During the Development Launch Project, partners will create and pilot components of two coursesthat will confer college credit to students in two and four year schools. Each course will haveas its center piece a research and development internship. By the end of the Project DevelopmentPilot, FIRST TWO course modules will be integrated into courses the State, and be transferablebetween community colleges and four-year schools. An innovative component of FIRST TWO is the creation of Hometown STEM ambassadors--studentswho participate in both courses will be prepared to mentor their peers, and also conduct outreachin their home school districts. They will make presentations to hometown K-12 students, and willdiscuss STEM college readiness issues with local education leaders. We believe reconnecting post-secondary students with their home communities and providing place-based relevance to their STEM education will have a positive impact on their persistence, as well as the added benefit of encouragingK-12 students to envision themselves as future STEM professionals.FIRST TWO will:- integrate early experience in STEM internships, online communities of practice and STEM skills development into a discovery-based "principles of research and development" college seminar for first year students; - sustain engagement through a second service learning course, called STEM Leadership that will develop communication and mentoring skills and produce peer mentors who will mentor younger students, join in the efforts to change the STEM education experience at their schools, and conduct outreach in their hometown communities during the students? second year and third years.- secure state-wide adoption and transferability of these courses, or course materials, and ultimately scale the program across the Appalachian region and to other states with large rural student populations.- collaborate with National Labs to determine the feasibility of a National STEM Persistence Alliance partnering National Lab internship programs with 2 and 4-year schools who serve FGC students.Finally, there are many studies that inquire into the factors that correlate with post-secondary retention in general, and with STEM attrition specifically but few that focus on rural students. FIRST TWO will fully articulate a rigorous educational research project aimed at advancing understanding of the factors affecting rural students' entry into and persistence in STEM career pathways. This research will study the impact FIRST TWO program components make on rural FGC students' persistence in STEM majors. Instruments will be developed and validated that test the components proposed in FIRST TWO interventions. As we scale the program to a larger Alliance, so will the research study scale, providing a unique opportunity to inform the education community about the rural students' experience.