Empowering Academically Talented STEM Undergraduates through Early Experiences in Teaching and Mentoring of K-8 Youth

该项目将通过支持内布拉斯加州大学奥马哈分校(UNO)留住并毕业有经济需求的高成就低收入学生，为国家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做出贡献。UNO是一所追求卓越的教学、研究和服务的大都市大学，旨在为该地区提供受过教育的劳动力和公民。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读生物、化学、环境研究、地质学、分子和生物医学生物学、生物信息学、神经科学或物理学学士学位的学生提供为期四年的奖学金。该项目将提供早期和创新的专业发展和领导机会，为本科生在21世纪的科学就业做好准备，使用当地开发的指导和教学模式，结合精心设计的基于课程的本科生研究经验。该计划将邀请本科生在高度多样化的奥马哈公立学区的基于问题的学习STEM课程的课外计划中为K-8学生提供教学和指导。奥马哈公立学区近75%的学生在经济上处于不利地位。该项目将有助于理解如何改善STEM学习，不仅对本科生，而且对所有学习者。同时，该项目还将建立一条从K-8到大学、进入劳动力市场的STEM管道。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。具体地说，该项目旨在通过使用奖学金资助、当地开发的成功的指导和教学模式以及基于课程的本科生研究经验(CURE)来加强STEM劳动力。虽然教学和辅导模式的策略以及治疗方法都被证明在提高学生在STEM学科中的留存率和成就率方面都是有效的，但对低收入、有学业天赋的学生的影响还没有得到专门的调查。本项目旨在确定综合效果。此外，该项目有可能产生一个强大的STEM渠道，鼓励K-8青年通过具有相似背景的本科生的指导，将科学视为一个领域。如果这种干预措施能够帮助应对当地的STEM学习挑战并加强STEM渠道，它将是一个垂直整合的项目，将被视为值得复制的国家模式。将使用融合的类型学模型对项目的效果进行评估，其中包括允许进行定量和定性分析的混合方法。该项目的成果将在地方、地区和国家会议上公布，并在教育和学科期刊上发表。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、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 project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). UNO is a metropolitan university that pursues excellence in teaching, research, and service to provide an educated workforce and citizenry to the region. Over its five-year duration, this project will fund four-year scholarships to 24 students who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry, environmental studies, geology, molecular and biomedical biology, bioinformatics, neuroscience, or physics. The project will provide early and innovative professional development and leadership opportunities that prepare undergraduates for 21st century employment in science, using a locally developed mentoring and teaching model combined with carefully designed course-based undergraduate research experiences. The program will engage undergraduates in teaching and mentoring of K-8 students in an after-school program of problem-based learning STEM lessons in the highly diverse Omaha Public School District. Almost 75% of the students from the Omaha Public School District are economically disadvantaged. This project will contribute to an understanding of how to improve STEM learning, not only for undergraduate students, but for all learners. At the same time, this project will generate a STEM pipeline from K-8 through college and into the workforce.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project aims to strengthen the STEM workforce by using scholarship funding coupled with a locally developed, successful mentoring and teaching model and course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Though both the strategies of teaching and mentoring models and the CUREs have been shown to be effective in increasing student retention and success in the STEM disciplines, the impact on low- income, academically talented students has not been specifically investigated. This project aims to determine the combined effect. Furthermore, the project has the potential to generate a robust STEM pipeline by encouraging K-8 youth to consider science as a field via their mentorship by undergraduates of similar backgrounds. If such interventions can help address local STEM learning challenges and enhance the STEM pipeline, it will represent a vertically integrated project to be embraced as a national model worthy of replication. The effectiveness of the project will be evaluated using a convergent typological model inclusive of mixed methods allowing quantitative and qualitative analyses. Results of this project will be made available at local, regional, and national meetings as well as by publication in education and discipline-specific journals. 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 talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, 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.