Retention of Undergraduates in STEM: Reducing Barriers to Success in Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science

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。 该项目将直接鼓励，支持，并提供资源，以学术才华，经济困难的学生追求并在农村杜尔特大学四年制STEM本科学位课程取得成功。在五年的奖励期内，该项目将为14名攻读工程、数学和计算机科学本科学位的学生提供长达四年的奖学金。该项目将支持制定增强学者对自我效能和STEM身份的看法的计划，并确定哪些因素最有助于他们的成功。该项目有可能支持将加入STEM劳动力或继续STEM教育的多元化毕业生群体。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。为了实现这一目标，该项目将采用多种方法，重点关注两个具体目标：1）支持队列经验，包括学生参与基础定量STEM课程，研究座谈会，成长思维培训，以及匹配的教师，行业和同行指导; 2）开发新的课程途径，以增强学生在两年制和四年制STEM学位课程之间的过渡。在他们的大学经历中，学者将有机会获得经证明可促进STEM成功并减少保留障碍的循证实践。该项目将通过访谈和调查使用混合的定量和定性方法，以探索程序组件和上下文元素如何影响学生的整体成功。 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. This project will directly encourage, support, and provide resources to academically talented, financially disadvantaged students to pursue and succeed in four-year STEM undergraduate degree programs at rural Dordt University. Over the five-year award period, the project will provide up to four-year scholarships to fourteen students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, mathematics, and computer science. The project will support the development of programs that enhance Scholars' perceptions of self-efficacy and STEM identity, and determine which factors most contributed to their success. The project has the potential to support a diverse group of graduates who will join the STEM workforce or pursue further STEM education. The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. To achieve this goal, the project will use multiple approaches focused on two specific aims: 1) support cohort experiences, including student involvement in foundational quantitative STEM courses, research colloquia, growth mindset training, and matched faculty, industry, and peer mentoring; and 2) develop new curricular pathways to enhance student transitions between two-year and four-year STEM degree programs. Throughout their college experience, Scholars will have access to evidence-based practices proven to foster STEM success and to reduce barriers to retention. The project will use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods through interviews and surveys to explore how program components and contextual elements impact overall student success. 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.