Improving STEM Persistence and Retention via Curricula, Centralization, Cohorts, and Collaboration

该项目由国家科学基金科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目(S-STEM)资助，该项目为有经济需求的低收入、高成就学生提供支持。在为期五年的奖励期间，该项目旨在为正在攻读生物科学副学士学位的学生提供156个奖学金。除了奖学金外，学生还将接受教师和同行的指导，有机会获得有针对性的建议，并参与暑期研究机会。每个合作机构还将重新设计STEM课程，在这些课程中，学生往往会遇到困难，因此这些课程强调以学生为中心的学习。总而言之，这些努力有可能增加每个合作院校获得STEM学位的学生人数，并为这些毕业生进入STEM劳动力大军或在STEM深造做好准备。研究文献中对社区大学留校率的研究很有限。使用Tinto的整合模型，该项目集中在几个自然流失点上，这些点减少了学生对生物科学的学术和社会融入，并有助于减少STEM职业的保留率。在社区大学层面，学术支持对于保持学生对生物的兴趣至关重要。高影响力的支持包括旨在增加北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校生物学专业成功转学的教师指导/建议，以及联合课程活动，如与来自联邦赔偿委员会的教师和同行导师的联系。一旦转到北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校，获得奖学金的学生将在学业上受益，因为他们可以共同学习包括有机化学和微积分在内的部分必修课，而生物专业的学生在这方面历来举步维艰。为了支持他们的成功，这些课程的奖学金学生将有机会接触到接受过如何解决转学问题培训的同行导师。其他活动包括参与研究机会，这有可能增加学生融入校园和科学社区的可能性。将通过混合方法设计调查每个方案组成部分的影响，以确定该组成部分对转学学生融入赔偿委员会社区和完成学位的影响。这项研究的重点是社会经济地位、性别和制度因素之间的相互作用，这些因素限制或支持融入STEM社区，并影响生物学专业的持久性。这项研究的结果将有助于完善现有的学生融合理论，并有助于在STEM中开展越来越多的交叉性工作。这些发现的传播可能有助于在赔偿委员会和其他转学学生人数较多的公立高等教育机构为转学学生创建类似的以学科为基础的学习社区。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded by the NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, which provides support for low-income, high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need. During the five-year award period, this project aims to fund 156 scholarships for students who are pursuing associate's or bachelor's degrees in the biological sciences. In addition to the scholarships, students will receive faculty and peer mentoring, have access to targeted advising, and participate in summer research opportunities. Each of the partner institutions will also redesign STEM courses in which students often struggle, so that the courses emphasize student-centered learning. Together, these efforts have the potential to increase the number of students graduating with a STEM degree from each partner institution, and prepare these graduates to enter the STEM workforce or pursue further study in STEM. Limited studies of community college retention appear in the research literature. Using Tinto's model of integration, this project focuses on several points of attrition that reduce students' academic and social integration into the biological sciences and contribute to reduced retention in STEM careers. At the community college level, academic supports will be critical for maintaining student interest in biology. High impact supports include faculty mentoring/advising intended to increase successful transfer to the biology major at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and co-curricular activities such as contact with faculty and peer mentors from UNCC. Once they have transferred to University of North Carolina, Charlotte, scholarship students will benefit academically from co-enrolling in sections of required courses, including organic chemistry and calculus, in which biology majors have historically struggled. To support their success, scholarship students in these courses will have access to peer mentors who have received training about how to address transfer student issues. Other activities include involvement in research opportunities, which has the potential to increase student integration into their campus and scientific communities. The impact of each program component will be investigated via a mixed methods design, to determine the component's impact on integration of transfer students into the UNCC community and degree completion. This research focuses on the interplay between socioeconomic status, gender, and institutional factors that limit or support integration into STEM communities and impact persistence in the biology major. The results from this research will help to refine existing theories of student integration and contribute to a growing body of work on intersectionality in STEM. Dissemination of these findings may inform the creation of similar discipline-based learning communities for transfer students at UNCC and other public institutions of higher education with large transfer student populations.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.