STEM Scholarship Excellence Project: Exploring the Effects of Psychosocial Factors on STEM Persistence at an Historically Black College

这个为期五年的项目将支持28名低收入、高成就的STEM本科生在莱恩学院--一所历史悠久的黑人学院--取得成功，并证明他们有经济需求。实现这一目标将有助于全国对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。该项目将为正在攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、数学和/或物理学士学位的学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得四年奖学金，转校生将获得两年奖学金。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。计划的活动包括指导、本科生研究体验、服务学习、外联项目、研究生院准备和参加特定学科的会议。在导师的帮助下，学者们将制定个人发展计划，定义他们的职业目标和实现这些目标的步骤。该项目还将支持旨在增加STEM一年级学生保留率的课程改进。由于莱恩学院的学生人数较多，该项目有潜力扩大STEM领域的参与度。该项目的总体目标是增加STEM领域低收入、学业成就优异的本科生的学位完成率。非认知、心理社会因素，如固定和成长心态、毅力、自我效能和对科学的态度，已被证明影响学生在STEM中的坚持性。这个项目将调查心理社会因素对历史上黑人学院和大学的STEM学生的影响，他们中的许多人面临着与大学准备、学术参与和科学认同相关的挑战。这个项目将考察奖学金选择过程是否偏向那些由于成长心态等心理社会因素而倾向于成功的学生。它还将调查另一种可能性，即学者们由于参与项目活动而发展出与学业成功有关的某些心理社会因素。该项目有可能促进对心理社会因素如何影响学生在STEM领域的成功的理解，包括来自代表性不足群体的学生的成功。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加获得STEM领域学位的低收入、学业成就高、有经济需求的学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来科学家、工程师和技术人员的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了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 five-year project will support the success of twenty-eight low-income, high-achieving STEM undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need at Lane College, an Historically Black College. Achieving this goal will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. The project will provide scholarships to students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and/or Physics. First-year students will receive four-year scholarships and transfer students will receive two-year scholarships. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities. Planned activities include mentoring, undergraduate research experiences, service learning, outreach projects, graduate school preparation, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. With the help of mentors, the Scholars will create Individual Development Plans that define their career goals and steps toward achieving those goals. The project will also support curriculum improvements aimed at increasing first-year student retention in STEM. Because Lane College has a high population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, academically high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. Non-cognitive, psychosocial factors, such as fixed and growth mindset, grit, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward science, have been demonstrated to affect student persistence in STEM. This project will investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on STEM students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, many of whom face challenges related to college readiness, academic engagement, and scientific identity. This project will examine the possibility that the Scholar selection process is biased toward students who are predisposed to success because of psychosocial factors, such as growth mindset. It will also investigate the alternative possibility that the Scholars develop certain psychosocial factors associated with academic success as a result of participating in project activities. This project has the potential to advance understanding of how psychosocial factors affect student success in STEM fields, including the success of students from underrepresented groups. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income, academically high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.