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

该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划资助，该计划为有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的学生提供支持。在为期五年的奖励期内，该计划将为攻读生物科学副学士或学士学位的学生提供156个奖学金。除了奖学金之外，学生还将获得教师和同伴指导，获得有针对性的建议，并参加暑期研究机会。每个合作机构还将重新设计学生经常遇到困难的STEM课程，以便课程强调以学生为中心的学习。总之，这些努力有可能增加从每个合作机构获得STEM学位的学生人数，并为这些毕业生进入STEM劳动力市场或继续学习STEM做好准备。研究文献中出现了有限的社区学院保留研究。使用Tinto的整合模型，该项目侧重于几个摩擦点，这些摩擦点降低了学生对生物科学的学术和社会融合，并有助于降低STEM职业的保留率。在社区学院，学术支持对于保持学生对生物学的兴趣至关重要。高影响力的支持包括教师指导/建议，旨在增加成功转到北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的生物学专业，以及课外活动，如与UNCC的教师和同伴导师联系。一旦他们转到北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校，奖学金学生将受益于共同注册必修课程的部分，包括有机化学和微积分，这些课程是生物学专业历来难以学习的。为了支持他们的成功，这些课程的奖学金学生将有机会获得接受过如何解决转学生问题培训的同伴导师。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界。每个项目组成部分的影响将通过混合方法设计进行调查，以确定该组成部分对转校生融入UNCC社区和学位完成的影响。本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STEM社区的整合，并影响生物专业的持久性。这项研究的结果将有助于完善现有的学生整合理论，并为越来越多的STEM交叉性工作做出贡献。这些发现的传播可以为UNCC和其他有大量转校生的高等教育公共机构的转校生创建类似的基于学科的学习社区提供信息。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。

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.