Supporting the Success of STEM Students Through Scholarships and Structured Professional Development

该项目将有助于满足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。它将通过支持南得克萨斯学院的学生留校和毕业来做到这一点。南得克萨斯学院是一所两年制的拉美裔服务机构。该项目将在五年内为40名攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、工程、数学和/或物理副学士学位的本科生提供奖学金。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有组织的专业发展活动联系起来，增加学者的保留、转移和/或毕业。这些活动包括教师指导、辅导、本科生研究经历、实习和参加科学会议。由于南得克萨斯学院的拉美裔学生比例很高，该项目可能会扩大STEM领域的参与度。此外，该项目的研究结果将产生关于如何提高STEM学生的成功的新知识，特别是来自STEM中代表性不足的两年制院校的学生。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位毕业率。这个项目的目的是：(1)为两个连续的20名本科生队列增加学生的意识、技能和社区意识；(2)提高学生的保留率；(3)在这个项目期间促进学者的毕业或转学。研究表明，奖学金形式的财政支持有助于留住STEM领域的学生；然而，人们对结构化学生专业发展对STEM专业低收入学生留住、坚持、转学和/或毕业的影响知之甚少。此外，关于学生群体对学生归属感的影响，特别是对南得克萨斯学院人口背景的学生的影响，可用的数据有限。本项目涉及的研究问题是：(1)结构化的学生职业发展在多大程度上提高了STEM专业学生的保留率、持久力、转化率和学位完成率？(2)参与该项目在多大程度上增加了学生的归属感，以及追求STEM学位和职业的动机？为了解决这些问题，该项目将收集关于连接性、承诺、参与度和学生学习表现的纵向数据。该项目将通过将参与者收集的数据与学术背景和人口统计相似的非队列控制组STEM学生的数据进行比较，区分活动对归属感和学生成功的预期积极影响。一名独立的内部评估员将为项目的三个目标中的每一个提供参与度和学术表现的形成性和总结性评估。调查结果将在内部专业发展会议、地方和州STEM会议上传播，并通过STEM教育期刊上的出版物传播。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。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 scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of students at South Texas College, a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution. Over five years, the project will provide scholarships to forty undergraduate students who are pursuing Associate degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and/or Physics. The project aims to increase the Scholars’ retention, transfer, and/or graduation by linking scholarships with structured professional development activities. These activities include faculty mentoring, tutoring, undergraduate research experiences, internships, and participation in scientific conferences. Because South Texas College has a high percentage of Hispanic students, this project is likely to broaden participation in STEM fields. In addition, results of the project’s research will produce new knowledge about how to improve the success of STEM students, particularly students at two-year institutions and from backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project aims to: (1) increase student awareness, skills, and sense of community for two sequential cohorts of 20 undergraduate students; (2) improve student retention; and (3) facilitate graduation or transfer of Scholars within the period of this project. Research indicates that financial support in the form of scholarships helps retain students in STEM fields; however, less is known about the impact of structured student professional development on the retention, persistence, transfer and/or graduation of low-income students majoring in a STEM discipline. Additionally, limited data are available regarding the impact of student cohorts on students' sense of belonging, especially on students from the demographic backgrounds represented at South Texas College. Research questions addressed in this project are: (1) To what extent does structured student professional development improve retention, persistence, transfer rates and degree completion of students majoring in a STEM discipline? (2) To what extent does participation in the program increase students' sense of belonging, and motivation to pursue STEM degrees and careers? To address these questions, the project will collect longitudinal data on connectedness, commitment, engagement, and student academic performance. This project will distinguish between the expected positive impact of activities on sense of belonging and student success by comparing data collected from participants to data from a non-cohort control group of STEM students with similar academic backgrounds and demographics. An independent internal evaluator will provide formative and summative evaluation of engagement and academic performance for each of the project's three objectives. Findings will be disseminated at internal professional development conferences, local and state STEM conferences, and through publications in STEM education 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.