Providing Scholarships and Interdisciplinary Cohort Experiences to Increase Retention and Graduation of STEM Undergraduates in Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics

该项目将有助于满足国家对有技能的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。它将通过支持在纽约城市大学(CUNY)系统中的一所公立学士学位学院约克学院(York College)留住并毕业有经济需求的优秀低收入学生来做到这一点。在五年的时间里，该项目将为35名本科生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者将以四个年度分组的形式被录取，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持，以攻读化学、计算机科学、数学或物理学的学士学位。除了提供奖学金外，该项目还将提供课程和联合课程支持，旨在提高留校率和毕业率，并为毕业生进入STEM职业或研究生院做准备。具体地说，该项目旨在加强同行辅导和辅导，并通过建立跨学科队列，在学者中建立社区意识。通过审查这些跨学科队列的有效性，该项目计划产生关于留住和毕业STEM学生的有效做法的新知识。约克学院位于美国种族最多元化的城市地区之一，来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生占学生总数的60%以上。因此，该项目非常适合增加STEM领域的多样性。通过将学者与少数族裔和其他企业/行业的实习机会联系起来，该项目还有可能加强学术界和私营部门之间的合作伙伴关系。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学位完成率。具体项目目标是实现奖学金年度留存和四年毕业率达到90%。通过实施和研究包括大二到大四学生在内的跨学科学者群体，该项目将揭示非传统群体内部的动态，因为学者们开展合作研究项目，学习成为同行导师和导师，并调查STEM研究生项目和职业。该项目将解决三个具体的研究问题：(1)对等和师生互动如何影响不同学者的经历和结果，特别是那些来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学者？(2)共同生成对话如何影响基础数学课程中的学者和其他学生？以及(3)教师导师在实施基于跨学科队列的指导模式时面临哪些好处和挑战？调查人员将通过学者队列的案例研究中的定性数据来解决研究问题。数据将包括来自独立研究课程的信息，课程课程的观察，焦点小组的结果，对导师的采访，以及来自每周辅导期刊的信息。该项目包括关于计划要素的有效性的形成性和终结性评估计划，以及在达到关于学者招募、留住、毕业和职业发展轨迹的基准方面的进展情况。研究成果将发表在相关同行评议的教育期刊上，并在针对大学一级STEM教育工作者的会议上公布。项目成果将在一个网站上公布，并与纽约大学所有25个校区的STEM领导层分享。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。它还旨在改善对未来STEM工人的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转学、毕业和学业/职业道路的知识。约克学院的学生群体包括超过66%的STEM代表不足的少数族裔。这一奖项反映了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 skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at York College, a public baccalaureate college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 35 undergraduate students. The Scholars will be admitted in four annual cohorts and receive up to four years of Scholarship support to pursue bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, or Physics. In addition to providing scholarships, the project will also provide curricular and co-curricular supports designed to increase retention and graduation rates and to prepare graduates for STEM careers or graduate school. Specifically, the project intends to enhance peer mentoring and tutoring, as well as build a sense of community among the Scholars by establishing cross-disciplinary cohorts. By examining the effectiveness of these cross-disciplinary cohorts, the project plans to generate new knowledge about effective practices for retaining and graduating STEM students. York College is located in one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in the US and students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM comprise mor than 60% of the student body. Thus, the project is well situated to increase diversity in STEM fields. By linking Scholars with internship opportunities in minority-owned and other businesses/industries, the project also has the potential to enhance partnerships between academia and the private sector.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific project goal is to achieve Scholar annual retention and four-year graduation rates of 90%. By implementing and studying interdisciplinary Scholar cohorts that include sophomores to seniors, the project will shed light on the dynamics within non-traditional cohort groups, as the Scholars conduct collaborative research projects, learn to be peer mentors and tutors, and investigate STEM graduate programs and careers. The project will address three specific research questions: (1) How do peer-to-peer and faculty-student interactions affect the experiences of and outcomes for different Scholars, particularly those from groups underrepresented in STEM? (2) How do co-generative dialogues affect the scholars and other students in foundational mathematics courses? and (3) What benefits and challenges do faculty mentors face in implementing the interdisciplinary cohort-based mentoring model? The investigators will address the research questions through qualitative data from case studies of the Scholar cohorts. Data will include information from independent studies courses, observations of course sessions, results of focus groups, interviews with the mentors, and information from weekly mentoring journals. The project includes plans for formative and summative evaluation regarding the effectiveness of program elements and progress toward meeting benchmarks regarding Scholar recruitment, retention, graduation, and career trajectories. Research findings will be published in relevant peer-reviewed educations journals and presented at conferences aimed at university-level STEM educators. Project outcomes will be publicized on a website and shared with STEM leadership across all 25 CUNY campuses. 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. The York College student population includes more than 66% underrepresented minorities in STEM.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.