Building Capacity: Positive Learning Opportunities and Research Experiences to Promote Success in STEM

改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划（HSI计划）旨在加强本科STEM教育并建立HSI的能力。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。 圣泽维尔大学的这个项目将通过提高STEM领域本科生的保留率和毕业率来推进HSI计划的目标。 为此，该项目将创建一个STEM工作室，为学生提供持续的社区，社会和学术支持。 STEM工作室还将作为体验式学习机会和系统教师以及本科生同行指导的中心。许多旨在扩大STEM参与的高影响力教育经验都是针对高成就和/或低成就的学生。 相比之下，该项目将使所有学生获得高影响力的教育经验，他们可能会从中获得直接，可衡量的好处。通过解决STEM专业的许多本科生面临的主要挑战，圣泽维尔大学希望提高保留率和毕业率，这反过来又将为STEM领域的研究生水平工作和职业生涯打开大门。为了实现提高保留率和毕业率的总体目标，该项目将实现四个目标：（1）创建STEM工作室，为圣泽维尔大学科学学者社区提供一个聚会场所;（2）集中针对处于关键过渡点的科学课程本科生的有针对性的学术支持战略;（3）建立一个科学、技术、工程、数学和数学专业的工作室，为他们提供一个科学、技术、工程和数学专业的工作室。（3）为学生和教师的合作研究和其他高影响力的学习经验，如短期实地研究提供机会;（4）提供网络机会和课程增强，连接学术课程工作场所。该方案的成功将从持久性和包容性的体制环境评估两个方面进行评估。该项目将对收集的数据进行多元统计分析，以确定目标、学生对验证和归属感的看法以及学术成果之间的相关性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge about how to achieve these aims. This project at Saint Xavier University will advance the aims of the HSI Program by increasing retention and graduation rates of undergraduates in STEM fields. To this end, the project will create a STEM Studio that will provide students with ongoing community, social, and academic supports. The STEM Studio will also serve as the hub for experiential learning opportunities and systemic faculty and peer mentoring of undergraduate students. Many high-impact educational experiences designed to broaden participation in STEM are directed at high-achieving and/or lower-achieving students. In contrast, this project will connect all students to high-impact educational experiences from which they are likely to show direct, measurable benefits. By addressing major challenges faced by many undergraduates majoring in STEM, Saint Xavier University expects to increase retention and graduation rates, which in turn will open doors to graduate level work and careers in STEM fields. To achieve the overarching goal of improving retention and graduation rates, the project will implement four objectives: (1) create the STEM Studio to provide a gathering place for a community of Saint Xavier University scientific scholars; (2) centralize targeted academic support strategies for undergraduates in science courses at critical transition points; (3) provide opportunities for student-faculty collaborative research and for other high-impact learning experiences such as short-term field research; and (4) provide networking opportunities and curriculum enhancements that connect academic coursework to the workplace. Success of this program will be evaluated in terms of both persistence to degree and assessment of the institutional climate for inclusivity. The project will apply a multivariate statistical analysis to the collected data to identify correlations between the objectives, student perceptions of validation and belonging, and academic outcomes.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.