Implementation of a Contextualized Computing Pedagogy in STEM Core Courses and Its Impact on Undergraduate Student Academic Success, Retention, and Graduation

该项目将通过支持马萨诸塞州达特茅斯大学有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的留校和毕业，来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。在五年的时间里，它将为28名正在攻读生物、化学、工程、数学或物理学士学位的独特的全日制学生提供奖学金。奖学金将授予初学者最长四年的奖学金和转学学生最长两年的奖学金。除了提供奖学金外，该项目还计划通过在包括计算研究或真实咨询在内的现实世界环境中教授计算机，来改善计算机教育。这项学习将纳入STEM的核心课程。项目组还计划为学者们提供密集的指导，重点将放在职业发展上。该项目将评估STEM核心班级的基于问题的计算教学，加上奖学金、积极的指导和持续的职业建议，如何影响低收入学生的成功、留住和毕业。此外，它可能提供一个可复制的模式，用于整合财务支持、指导和基于发现的教育，同时帮助培养一支能够计算和数据分析的STEM劳动力队伍。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体目标包括为每个STEM专业每年至少一门新课程开发和实施一个基于问题的计算和分析模块，并让每个学者参与至少一个学期的以计算为主题的研究或咨询。每位奖学金获得者将有一名教员和近乎同行的导师，并将被鼓励参加每年至少一次的职业活动。该项目将寻求确定主动性教师和同伴指导在提高学生在STEM中的归属感和自我效能感方面发挥的作用，以及将本科研究、基于问题的计算模块和真实学习整合到STEM核心课程中是否会增加学业天赋的低收入学生的留校率和职业抱负。为了回答这些问题，调查和学生跟踪将被用来研究课程和联合课程活动的有效性。项目评估将探索活动和影响的横向部分，其洞察力将为工作的形成和总结方面提供信息。这些调查结果和模块将通过网站、国家会议和与三所社区学院的年度讲习班传播，以便其他机构可以改编和实施。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 by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Over its five-year duration, it will fund scholarships to twenty-eight unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, or physics. Scholarships will be awarded to first-time students for up to four years and to transfer students for up to two years. In addition to providing scholarships, the project plans to improve computing education by teaching computing though real-world contexts that include either computational research or authentic consulting. This learning will be integrated into the core STEM courses. The project team also plans to provide Scholars with intensive mentoring, which will focus on career development. The project will assess how problem-based computational teaching in core STEM classes, coupled with scholarships, proactive mentoring, and sustained career advising, affect the success, retention, and graduation of low-income students. Furthermore, it may provide a reproducible model for integrating financial support, mentoring, and discovery-based education, while helping to prepare a STEM workforce capable of computation and data analytics.The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific objectives include developing and implementing a problem-based computing and analysis module in at least one new course every year for every involved STEM major and engaging every Scholar in computation-themed research or consulting for at least one semester. Every Scholar will have a faculty and near-peer mentor and will be encouraged to participate in at least one career event per year. The project will seek to determine what roles proactive faculty and peer mentoring play in increasing students' sense of belonging and self-efficacy in STEM and whether integrating undergraduate research, problem-based computing modules, and authentic learning within core STEM curricula increases retention and career aspirations of academically talented low-income students. To answer these questions, surveys and student-tracking will be used to study the curricular and co-curricular activities' effectiveness. Project evaluation will explore a cross-section of activities and impacts, the insights from which will inform both formative and summative aspects of the work. These findings and modules will be disseminated through websites, national conferences, and annual workshops with three community colleges so they can be adapted and implemented by other institutions. 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 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.