Increasing Retention and Graduation of Students in Civil Engineering

该项目将通过支持高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生的招聘、留住和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的工程师的需求做出贡献。在五年的时间里，该项目将向密苏里大学的24名本科生和8名研究生(硕士)提供为期两年的奖学金。学者将攻读土木工程学士或硕士学位。在第一年和第二年，本科生将在一套八门必修的基础课程中得到全面的支持，包括微积分、基础科学和工程分析。密苏里州交通部、HDR Engineering，Inc.和Kiewit Construction将为学者们提供实习、合作和跟踪工作的机会，以扩大学生的劳动力培训和经验。奖学金获得者在三年级和四年级将获得额外的机构支持。教师导师的可选研究将为学者过渡到密苏里大学土木工程研究生课程创造机会。研究生学者将与教师顾问合作研究智能和可持续基础设施系统的研究项目。作为其更广泛影响的一部分，该项目将建立一个持久的机构基础设施和网络，继续产生关于如何支持学生成功、留住、转移、毕业和进入STEM劳动力或研究生学习的新知识。该项目的智力价值包括开发了一种全面的方法，以便在基础工程课程中为本科生提供早期、积极的支持。这种方法预计将提高土木工程专业学生的毅力和适时毕业，从而为学生在STEM劳动力或研究生学习中脱颖而出做好准备。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率，这些本科生需要获得土木工程学位，并进入STEM领域的劳动力或研究生课程。招生工作将侧重于第一次入学的大学生、代表性不足的少数族裔、女性和转校生，从而为不同的群体提供进入并成功毕业于教唆认可的土木工程学位的机会。具体目标包括：(I)在基础课程中为本科生提供早期干预和全面支持；(Ii)产生知识，以促进对各种因素和基于证据的课程和联合课程活动如何影响学生的成功、保留、转移、学术/职业道路和STEM毕业的理解；(Iii)指导本科生进入大学的土木工程研究生课程；以及(Iv)通过建设机构能力来支持来自低收入背景的学业表现优异的学生，在授权期后维持所有目标。该项目旨在实施一项促进学生成功的协同战略，该战略建立在现有机构资源的基础上，并制定新的具体项目支持机制，包括及早评估和及时干预。知识生成的努力将促进对自我效能感、学生经历和成功衡量标准的认知和非认知方面的理解，以及“社区意识”指标。该项目将包括调查这些基于证据的实践和协同策略如何影响学生的结果。内部和外部评价都包括形成性和总结性评估，以使项目得以持续改进，并确定所用方法的有效性。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加低收入学术天才学生的数量，这些学生被证明有经济上的需求，需要获得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 engineers by supporting the recruitment, retention, and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide two-year scholarships to 24 undergraduate and 8 graduate (Masters) students at the University of Missouri. Scholars will pursue Bachelor or Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering. During their first and second years, undergraduate Scholars will receive comprehensive support in a set of eight required foundational courses, including calculus, basic sciences, and engineering analysis. The Missouri Department of Transportation, HDR Engineering, Inc., and Kiewit Construction will provide Scholars with internship, co-op, and job-shadowing opportunities to expand students' workforce training and experience. Scholars will receive additional institutional support during their junior and senior years. Optional research with faculty mentors will create opportunities for scholars to transition to University of Missouri graduate programs in civil engineering. Graduate Scholars will work with faculty advisors on research projects that study smart and sustainable infrastructure systems. As a component of its broader impact, this project will build a lasting institutional infrastructure and networks that will continue to generate new knowledge about how to support the success, retention, transfer, graduation, and entry of students into the STEM workforce or graduate study. The intellectual merit of this project includes its development of a comprehensive approach for early, active support of undergraduates in foundational engineering courses. This approach is expected to result in increased persistence and timely graduation of students with degrees in civil engineering, thus preparing students to excel in the STEM workforce or graduate studies. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need to obtain degrees in civil engineering and enter the workforce or graduate programs in STEM fields. The recruitment effort will emphasize first-time-college students, underrepresented minorities, females, and transfer students, thus providing a diverse cohort with the opportunity to enter and successfully graduate with an ABET-accredited civil engineering degree. Specific objectives include: (i) providing undergraduates with early intervention and comprehensive support in foundational courses; (ii) generating knowledge to advance the understanding of how factors and evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities affect student success, retention, transfer, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM; (iii) mentoring undergraduate scholars to matriculate into the University’s graduate civil engineering program; and, (iv) sustaining all of the objectives beyond the award period by building institutional capacity for support of academically high-performing students from low-income backgrounds. The project intends to implement a synergistic strategy for student success that builds on existing institutional resources and develops new project-specific support mechanisms, including early assessment and timely intervention. Knowledge generation efforts will advance understanding of self-efficacy, cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of student experiences and success measures, and "sense of community" indicators. The project will include an investigation of how these evidence-based practices and synergistic strategies affect student outcomes. Both internal and external evaluations include formative and summative assessments to enable ongoing project improvement and to determine the effectiveness of the approaches used. 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 to 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.