Increasing the Persistence of STEM Majors through Nanoscience-Themed Activities that Support Academic, Professional, and Personal Engagement and Development

该项目将有助于国家需要熟练的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入学生在西切斯特大学，一个综合性的，主要是本科院校的保留和毕业。 该项目为期五年，将为18名攻读生物学、化学、法医和毒理学化学、地球科学、数学或物理学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。学者将进入两个年度队列的9名学生，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持。 除了奖学金，该项目还将为学者提供一套全面的基于证据的学术，专业和个人参与和发展活动，这些活动嵌入在一个总体的纳米科学主题中。 这些活动将跨越学者的整个学术生涯，包括面向STEM的夏令营，定向和学习社群活动，以STEM为主题的期刊俱乐部，纳米科学研究夏季经验和行业实习的机会，以及职业规划和研究生奖学金写作研讨会。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。 具体目标包括：（1）实施以证据为基础的四年计划，综合学术，专业和个人经验;（2）有助于了解学生群体和其他心理和社会因素对学生成功和保留以及STEM毕业的影响;以及（3）扩大低收入高成就STEM学生在生物学、地球和空间科学、化学、数学和物理学方面的参与。 利用现象学方法，混合方法的研究和开发工作将研究学者群体的生活经验，以记录和探索学习过程中的成长心态，理想的困难/富有成效的斗争和元认知实践如何影响学生的成功，保留和STEM学位毕业。 在个人、时间和方法/措施方面，该项目的三角测量战略将支持数据的开发/收集，使用多种数据源和方法/措施，分析数据，包括解决趋同、不一致和矛盾，以及建立研究结果的可信度、可信度和有效性。 该项目有可能推进有关活动和因素的知识，这些活动和因素对STEM学生的成功，保留和毕业有着不同的影响。 形成性和总结性评估的混合方法将为项目改进提供信息，并记录和评估项目过程和学生成果。 该项目的成果将通过项目网站、出版物以及在以教育为导向的会议和场地上的演讲提供。 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 skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at West Chester University, a comprehensive, primarily undergraduate institution. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 18 full-time students who are pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Forensic and Toxicological Chemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics, or Physics. Scholars will enter in two annual cohorts of nine students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. In addition to the scholarships, the project will provide Scholars with a comprehensive suite of evidence-based academic, professional, and personal engagement and development activities that are embedded within an overarching nanoscience theme. The activities will span Scholars’ entire academic career and include a STEM-oriented summer camp, Orientation and Learning Community activities, a STEM-themed journal club, opportunities for nanoscience research summer experiences and industry internships, and career planning and graduate fellowship grant-writing workshops. The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific aims include: (1) To implement a four-year program of evidence-based, integrated academic, professional, and personal experiences; (2) to contribute to an understanding of the impact of student cohorts and other psychological and social factors on student success and retention and graduation in STEM; and (3) to broaden the participation of low-income high-achieving STEM students in Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics. Drawing on a phenomenological approach, the mixed methods research and development effort will examine the lived experience of Scholar cohorts to document and explore how growth mindset, desirable difficulties/productive struggles, and metacognitive practices during learning impact student success, retention, and graduation with a STEM degree. Across individuals, time, and methods/measures, the project’s triangulation strategies will support the development/collection of data, the use of multiple data sources and methods/measures, analyses of the data to include addressing convergence, inconsistency, and contradiction, and the establishment of the trustworthiness, credibility, and validity of the study findings. The project has the potential to advance knowledge about activities and factors that differentially influence student success, retention, and graduation in STEM. A mixed methods formative and summative evaluation will inform project improvement, as well as document and assess project processes and student outcomes. Results from the project will be made available through the project website, publications, and presentations at education-oriented conferences and venues. 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.