Building an Academic Community of Engineering Scholars to Increase Persistence and Transfer into Four-year Engineering and Computer Science Degree Programs

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的成绩优异的低收入家庭学生的留校、毕业和转学，满足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。该项目将支持莱克县学院的学生，这是一所社区学院，也是一所西班牙裔服务机构。该项目为期五年，将为125名攻读副学士学位并打算转学并完成工程或计算机科学学士学位的学生提供最多三年的奖学金。学生转学后，每年将额外获得5个大学级别的奖学金。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括学术咨询项目、辅导和学习会议、创客空间活动、实习，以及在微积分、工程图学和工程概论课程的特殊部分招收学者，以提高学生的坚持度。这些活动的核心是引入Baxter创新实验室（Makerspace/Fab Lab）作为工程和计算机科学文化中心。由于莱克县学院有大量未被充分代表的学生，这个项目有可能扩大工程和计算机科学领域的参与。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。本研究有两个具体目的：1)研究湖县学院加强社区建设的有效性；2)通过考察体验式学习和实习对自我效能感和归属感的影响，探讨体验式学习和实习的影响。关于自我效能感和学生成功的研究相当多。然而，关于创客空间环境和/或社区大学环境如何影响自我效能感和学生成功的数据很少。这个项目有可能帮助填补这些研究空白。该项目将进行教育评估和项目评估，以确定促进学生成功的关键干预措施，并提供可用于改善其他机构STEM教育的信息。这项工作的成果将通过数字渠道、在国家会议上的演讲以及在同行评审期刊和行业期刊上的出版物广泛传播给各种受众。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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 will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention, graduation, and transfer of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. The project will support students at the College of Lake County, which is a community college as well as a Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide up to three-year scholarships to 125 students who are pursuing associate of science degrees and who intend to transfer and complete a bachelor's degree in engineering or computer science. Five additional university-level scholarships per year will be awarded to students as they transfer. The project aims to increase student persistence by linking scholarships with effective support activities, including academic advising programs, tutoring and study sessions, makerspace activities, internships, and enrolling Scholars as cohorts in special sections of Calculus, Engineering Graphics, and Introduction to Engineering courses. Central to these activities is the introduction of the Baxter Innovation Lab (Makerspace/Fab Lab) as the engineering and computer science cultural hub. Because the College of Lake County has a high population of underrepresented students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in the engineering and computer science fields.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are two specific aims: 1) study the effectiveness of enhanced community building at the College of Lake County; and 2) explore the impact of experiential learning and internships by examining how both affect self-efficacy and sense of belonging. Considerable research has been conducted about self-efficacy and student success. However, little data are available about how a makerspace environment and/or a community college context affect self-efficacy and student success. This project has the potential to help fill some of these research gaps. The project will conduct educational assessment and program evaluation to identify key interventions that promote student success and to provide information that can be used to improve STEM education at other institutions. Results from this work will be broadly disseminated to a variety of audiences through digital outlets, presentations at national conferences, and publications in peer-reviewed and trade 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.