Scholarships and Learning Community to Build Academic Momentum in STEM Students who Transfer from a Community College to a Four Year University

该项目将通过支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进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。 具体而言，该项目将支持前岭社区学院和科罗拉多州立大学的学生。Front Range Community College是科罗拉多最大的社区学院。 它拥有多元化的学生群体，是科罗拉多州立大学最大的转学生来源。在该项目的五年期间，该项目将为至少150名STEM学生提供长达四年的奖学金支持。 这些学生将攻读数学、生命科学、物理科学、工程或计算机科学的副学士和学士学位。一个教师和学生成功教练团队将通过以下方式为学者的成功做出贡献：在两个机构实施学者的入职到数学和科学学习社区;发展学者的知识和技能;通过课程规划和衔接确保转移的连续性;提供实践经验;并指导学者。该项目意义重大，因为它将整合全国社区学院正在采用的提高学生保留率、转学率和完成学位的最佳做法。该项目的更广泛影响包括缩小科罗拉多的教育差距，增加完成STEM学位的学生的多样性。它的智力价值在于一项研究，该研究将评估使用学生成功的短期措施（学术势头）来预测和支持长期成功。 该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。具体而言，该项目旨在增加来自Front Range Community College的低收入，学术才华的学生人数，他们完成STEM副学士学位，转学到科罗拉多州立大学，并完成STEM学士学位。具体目标是：1）优化低收入，学术天赋的学生从前线社区学院数学和科学职业和学术社区的招生和持久性; 2）增加学者的干参与，知识和技能;和3）提高连续性和衔接在转移过程中，以提高学生的成功。该项目的研究部分将产生关于最佳做法的新知识，以支持开始在两年制学院接受教育的STEM学生完成学士学位。 该研究项目将衡量奖学金和项目活动对学生自我效能感，科学身份和学术动力的影响。该项目预计，学术势头指标将提供可操作的数据，可能更适合衡量干预措施的成功比保留/完成指标。一名外部评估员将使用形成性和总结性混合方法衡量项目活动的执行程度、参与者以及项目目标是否实现。该项目的成果和研究结果将提交同行评审期刊发表，张贴在教育部的“有效做法信息中心”等网站上，并在区域和国家会议上介绍。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。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术成功，保留，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 and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, this project will support students at Front Range Community College and Colorado State University. Front Range Community College is the largest community college in Colorado. It has a diverse student body and is the largest source of transfer students to Colorado State University. Over the project's five-year duration, the project will provide up to four years of scholarship support for at least 150 STEM students. These students will pursue associate's and bachelor's degrees in mathematics, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, or computer sciences. A team of faculty and student success coaches will contribute to Scholars' success by: implementing Scholars' onboarding into a math and science learning community at both institutions; developing Scholars' knowledge and skills; ensuring transfer continuity through curriculum mapping and articulation; providing hands-on experiences; and mentoring the Scholars. This project is significant because it will integrate national best practices for improving student retention, transfer, and degree completion that are being adopted by community colleges nationwide. Broader impacts of this project include narrowing of educational gaps in Colorado and increasing the diversity of students completing STEM degrees. Its intellectual merit lies in a research study that will evaluate the use of near-term measures of student success (academic momentum) to predict and support long-term success. 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 increase the number of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College who complete a STEM associate degree, transfer to Colorado State University, and complete a STEM baccalaureate degree. The specific aims are: 1) optimizing enrollment and persistence of low-income, academically talented students from Front Range Community College Math and Science Career and Academic Community; 2) increasing Scholar's STEM engagement, knowledge, and skills; and 3) improving continuity and articulation in the transfer process to increase student success. This project's research component will generate new knowledge about best practices for supporting baccalaureate degree completion of STEM students who begin their education at a two-year colleges. The research project will measure the effect of scholarships and the project's activities on student self-efficacy, science identity, and academic momentum. The project expects that academic momentum metrics will provide actionable data that may be better suited for measuring success of interventions than retention/completion metrics. An external evaluator will measure the extent of implementation of the project's activities, who participated, and if the project's objectives are met using formative and summative mixed-method measures. This project's outcomes and research findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, posted on websites such as the Department of Education's "What Works Clearinghouse," and presented at regional and national conferences. 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.