The STEM Ambassadors Program: Building An Inclusive Community of Scholars through Mentoring and Research

为了保持其公民的全球竞争力和高生活水平，国家需要强大的科学和技术劳动力。 越来越多的证据表明，学生参与旨在支持科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）学术课程成功的活动生态系统的重要性。 一个重要的因素是参与真实的本科生研究经验，在其传统形式是一个资源密集型活动。 马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特分校及其合作机构（霍利奥克社区学院和马萨诸塞州大学波士顿分校）的STEM大使计划将开发和测试一种可扩展的低成本模式，为STEM学生提供真实的研究经验，使用基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURES）作为学生成功活动网络的组成部分。 研究团队将使用社会认知职业理论框架来研究学术成功，以确定和检查影响学生学术课程轨迹的认知，上下文和文化变量。 多站点纵向混合方法比较研究测试的假设，即学生的成功，保留，并在干毕业的影响机构环境，学生正式课程负荷，参与研究，在正式和非正式的导师和顾问网络的参与，在各种干外展活动的志愿服务，并在丰富的提供干相关的社会活动的参与。关于智力价值，社会认知职业理论（SCCT）框架表明，随着时间的推移，职业兴趣是由社会认知和行为输入塑造的，并受到环境支持和障碍的影响。 多站点顺序解释性研究将利用数据收集的定性波来解释和告知个体随时间增长的分层线性模型。 定量数据包括对关键SCCT结构的重复测量，例如STEM自我效能STEM结果预期以及STEM兴趣和目标。对照组是从符合条件并被邀请参加STEM AP但没有加入的学生群体中抽取的。 关于更广泛的影响，研究结果将有助于越来越多的文献增加学生的成功，为不同人群的学生攻读学位的干。

To maintain global competitiveness and a high standard of living for its citizens, the nation requires a strong scientific and technical workforce. Evidence is mounting on the importance of student participation in a ecosystem of activities designed to support success in academic programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). An important element is participation in authentic undergraduate research experiences, that in its traditional form is a resource-intensive activity. The STEM Ambassadors Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and its partner institutions (Holyoke Community College and University of Massachusetts, Boston) will develop and test a scalable low-cost model for offering authentic research experiences to STEM students using Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) as a component of a network of activities for student success. The research team will investigate academic success using a Social Cognitive Career Theory framework to identify and examine cognitive, contextual, and cultural variables that impact student trajectories in their academic programs. The multi-site longitudinal mixed methods comparative study tests the hypothesis that student success, retention, and graduation in STEM are affected by institutional context, student formal course load, engagement in research, participation in a network of formal and informal mentors and advisors, volunteering in a variety of STEM outreach activities, and participation in a rich offering of STEM-related social events. With regards to intellectual merit, The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) framework suggests that career interests are shaped by socio-cognitive and behavioral inputs over time and are influenced by environmental supports and barriers. The multi-site sequential-explanatory study will utilize a qualitative wave of data collection to explain and inform the Hierarchical Linear Modeling of individual growth over time. Quantitative data include repeated measures of key SCCT constructs, such as STEM self-efficacy STEM outcome expectations, and STEM interest and goals. Control groups are sampled from the population of students that were eligible and invited to STEM AP, but did not join. Regarding broader impacts, findings from the research will contribute to a growing body of literature on increasing student success for a diverse population of students pursuing degrees in STEM.