Nanoscale Energy and Interfacial Transport Research Based Mentoring Program to increase Underrepresented Minority Students in STEM

该提案探讨了如何激励来自圣路易斯地区的学生，特别是代表性不足的少数民族，追求科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的职业生涯。基于纳米能量和界面输运（NEIT）实验室的研究，一系列综合教育活动正在建立。这种拓展将丰富下一代学生的STEM学习经验，激发他们的工程兴趣，并定量评估阻碍和激励学生攻读STEM专业的因素。该项目支持整合本科设计项目、学生人才管道项目以及与高科技工业公司的合作关系。为了支持更广泛的参与，科学认同暑期工作坊提供教育和评估少数民族学生对工程价值的潜在社会心理认可。该研究旨在了解未被充分代表的少数族裔如何将被认定为工程师的价值视为一种可实现的愿望。此外，本研究还探讨了影响代表性不足学生的因素。对处于关键发展阶段的科学和工程的看法，他们可能认为与非stem领域相比，成为一名工程师的工作量或价值是不值得的。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 proposal explores how to motivate students from the Saint Louis area, and in particular underrepresented minorities, to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. A series of integrated education activities are being established based on research conducted in the Nanoscale Energy and Interfacial Transport (NEIT) laboratory. This outreach will enrich the STEM learning experience for the next generation of students, invoke their engineering interest, and quantitatively assess the factors that impede and motivate students to pursue STEM majors. The project supports the integration of undergraduate design projects, student talent pipeline programs, and partnerships with high-tech industrial companies. To support broadening participation, the science identity summer workshops provide education and evaluation of the potential social psychological recognition of the value of engineering among minority students. The study seeks to understand how underrepresented minorities can perceive the value of being identified as an engineer as an achievable aspiration. Moreover, this research explores factors that influence underrepresented students? perceptions about science and engineering at a critical developmental stage in which they may deem the workload or value associated with becoming an engineering as not worthwhile in comparison to non-STEM fields.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.