Supporting Multiple Pathways Through the Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。坎贝尔大学的这个为期四年的项目每年将为一年级、二年级和三年级的本科生提供18到28个奖学金。除了财政支持外，该项目还将为学生提供基于研究的经验和支持，这些经验和支持已被证明可以提高STEM学生的保留率。这些经验包括辅导、专业发展研讨会、教师和同伴指导、职业建议和服务项目。该项目将根据学生的需要和学术背景，为学生提供多种工程课程的支持。这种灵活性对低收入、高潜力的学生尤其有价值，因为他们没有机会接受高质量的大学预科高中教育。该项目将重点帮助学生学习数学和化学课程，这两门课程已被证明是坎贝尔大学工程教育的关键流失点。在先前研究第一代大学生社会资本特征的基础上，本项目将研究本科工程经历中数学准备与社会资本特征之间的关系。这个研究课题与坎贝尔的通用工程和文科方法相联系，帮助学生将社会和伦理考虑融入他们的工作中。该研究将基于朱莉·马丁博士开发的名称和资源生成器，这是她获得美国国家科学基金会职业奖的一部分。利用这项调查，该项目将跟踪学者在整个项目中的社会资本发展情况。根据他们对这个工具的反应，选定的学生将被采访，他们的反应将被编码和分析基于社会资本理论。从这种定性分析中获得的见解将使项目了解各个组成部分的有效性，并指导未来的调查。除了通常通过会议演讲和期刊出版物进行传播外，该项目的见解还将通过全国专业工程教育会议的研讨会进行分享，以便更详细地分享在实施这些想法时获得的实践经验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. This four-year project at Campbell University will provide 18 to 28 scholarships per year to first, second, and third year undergraduate engineering students. In addition to financial support, the project will provide students with research-based experiences and support that have been shown to increase student retention in STEM. These experiences include tutoring, professional development workshops, faculty and peer mentoring, career advising, and service projects. This project will support students on multiple tracks through the engineering curriculum, depending on student needs and academic backgrounds. This flexibility is particularly valuable for low-income, high-potential students who did not have access to high quality, college-preparatory high school education. The project will focus on assisting students in mathematics and chemistry courses, which have been demonstrated to be critical attrition points in engineering education at Campbell University.Building on prior work that examined the social capital characteristics of first generation college students, this project will examine the relationships between mathematics preparation and social capital characteristics in the undergraduate engineering experience. This research topic connects with Campbell's general engineering and liberal arts approach, which helps students integrate social and ethical considerations into their work. The research will be based on the Name and Resource Generator developed by Dr. Julie Martin as part of her NSF CAREER award. Using this survey, the project will track scholars' social capital development as they move through the program. Based on their responses to this instrument, selected students will be interviewed, and their responses will be coded and analyzed based on social capital theory. Insights gained from this qualitative analysis will inform the project about the effectiveness of various components and guide future inquiries. In addition to the usual dissemination through conference presentations and journal publications, the insights from this project will be shared through a workshop at a national professional engineering education conference, allowing for a more detailed sharing of the practical lessons learned in implementing these ideas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.