Pathway to Professions in the Biosciences: A Community College and University Partnership for STEM Degree Completion

该项目将通过支持大湾社区学院和新罕布什尔大学中表现出经济需求的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业，为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做出贡献。该项目为期五年，将为30名从大湾社区学院转到新罕布什尔大学的学生提供两年的奖学金。该奖学金将支持学生在生命科学学士学位课程的最后两年。该项目旨在通过将奖学金支持与其他支持机制（包括指导、以专业发展为中心的学术学习社区以及与学生职业兴趣相关的体验式学习组成部分）相结合，提高学生对生命科学的坚持。该项目还将进一步了解不同的学习经历和支持如何影响低收入社区大学生的自我效能感和职业决策。这个项目有潜力为改善国家生物科学事业和增加生物科学工作人员的多样性做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是提高STEM领域低收入、高成就本科生的学位完成率。该项目旨在增加在社区学院完成副学士学位、进入四年制大学并完成生命科学领域学士学位的学生人数。众所周知，自我效能感和专业发展经历可以提高学生对STEM学位的坚持度。然而，对于这些因素如何影响转校生，特别是那些来自非传统学术背景的转校生，我们知之甚少。这个项目将调查这个项目的活动是如何影响学生自我效能感的发展的。具体而言，本项目有可能促进了解专业学习社区和正式导师如何影响社区大学转学生的学业自我效能感、他们对完成学位相关社会支持和职业目标的看法，以及海外留学经历如何影响低收入家庭学生的学业自我效能感和职业目标。本项目将采用适应性、形成性和总结性混合方法进行评估，其中包括来自访谈和调查的信息，以及从学生、教师和领导团队收集的定量数据。该项目的成果将通过三种机制提供：1)在当地的大学和社区学院社区，在当地的年度研究会议上，并通过邀请研讨会；2)通过研讨会、网络研讨会活动和年度聚会，在新英格兰北部地区通过STEM教育研究小组；3)在全国范围内，通过在诸如年度美国高校协会转变本科STEM教育会议和NSF S-STEM会议等会议上的演讲，向更广泛的STEM教育研究界发表演讲。研究结果将在《生命科学教育》和《生物教育杂志》等同行评议期刊上发表。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 and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Great Bay Community College and the University of New Hampshire. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide two-year scholarships to 30 students who transfer from Great Bay Community College to the University of New Hampshire. The scholarships will support the students during the final two years of their Bachelor of Science degree programs in life sciences. The project aims to increase student persistence in life sciences by connecting scholarship support with other support mechanisms including mentorship, an academic learning community centered on professional development, and an experiential learning component related to students' career interests. The project will also further knowledge about how different learning experiences and supports affect the self-efficacy and career decisions of low-income community college students. This project has the potential to contribute to improving the national bioscience enterprise and increasing the diversity of the bioscience workforce.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The project aims to increase the number of students who complete their associate degree at the community college level, matriculate to the four-year university, and complete their bachelor's degree in a life sciences field. Self-efficacy and professional development experiences are known to increase student persistence in STEM degrees. However, little is known about how these factors affect transfer students, especially those from non-traditional academic backgrounds. This project will investigate how the activities of this project affect development of students' self-efficacy. Specifically, this project has the potential to advance the understanding about how a professional learning community and formal mentorship influence community college transfer students' academic self-efficacy, their perceptions of the social supports related to degree completion and their career goals, and how a study abroad experience influences low-income students' academic self-efficacy and career goals. This project will be evaluated using adaptive, formative and summative mixed-methods with information from interviews and surveys, and quantitative data collected from students, faculty, and the leadership team. Results of this project will be made available through three mechanisms: 1) locally within the University and Community College communities at local annual research conferences, and through invited seminars; 2) regionally through STEM education research groups in northern New England through seminars, webinar events, and annual gatherings; and 3) nationally, to the broader STEM education research community through presentations at conferences such as the annual Association of American Colleges and Universities Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education meeting, and the NSF S-STEM conference. Results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journal such as Life Sciences Education and the Journal of Biology Education. 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.