Scholarships and Science Opportunities, Activities, and Research to Support Undergraduate STEM Student Success

该项目将帮助国家对受过良好教育的科学家的需求，支持有经济需求的优秀学生留校并毕业于福曼大学，这是一所国立文科大学。在为期五年的时间里，该项目将为24名攻读化学、生物学、神经科学或地球科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。奖学金获得者每年将获得最高1万美元的奖学金支持，可续期四年。他们还将参与循证支持和服务，包括为期8天的夏季桥牌体验。在他们整个大学任期内，奖学金获得者将接受基于队列的建议，包括在奖学金获得者头两年的每周研讨会/工作坊会议。学者将进一步受益于课程的改进，包括对微积分预科的适应性在线审查，以及联合注册使用主动学习和同伴学习助手的化学入门课程和一年级写作课程。学者还将受益于对早期本科生研究经验的保证支持。这套体验、支持和服务旨在加强学者的学术和社会融合，帮助学者进步到毕业，并为STEM劳动力或研究生STEM教育做准备。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。学生参与者将是符合PELL资格的，主要目标是：(I)确保招募奖学金的学生包括自认为是第一代学生或在STEM中代表性不足的群体的成员；(Ii)提高初级化学和数学课程的表现和适应能力；(Iii)实现90%的四年毕业率，至少85%的初始入学学生完成初级STEM学位。这一努力扩展了先前的第一轨道S--科技教育管理模式项目，旨在加强适用于资源不足的参与者的科技教育管理模式干预的最佳做法。项目活动的有效性将通过侧重于多个维度的研究和评估来衡量，包括学术成功的量化衡量标准、STEM认同感(包括自我概念、目的感和STEM社会化)、社区归属感、复原力以及有目的和有意义的生活指标。这项工作旨在通过会议介绍和在STEM教育期刊上发表出版物，增进对可转让成果和最佳做法的理解，并计划在地方和国家范围内传播可转让的成果和最佳做法。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 demand for well-educated scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need at Furman University, a national liberal arts university. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund scholarships to 24 unique full-time students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Neuroscience, or Geosciences. Scholars will receive up to $10,000/year in scholarship support, renewable for four years. They will also engage in evidence-based supports and services, including an eight-day summer bridge experience. Through their entire college tenure, the Scholars will receive cohort-based advising that includes weekly seminar/workshop meetings during the Scholars’ first two years. Scholars will further benefit from curricular enhancements, including an adaptive online review of precalculus, and joint enrollment in introductory chemistry and first-year writing courses that use active learning and peer learning assistants. Scholars will also benefit from guaranteed support for early undergraduate research experiences. This suite of experiences, supports, and services is designed to enhance Scholars’ academic and social integration, helping Scholars progress to graduation and preparation for the STEM workforce or postgraduate STEM education. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Student participants will be Pell-eligible, with primary objectives to: (i) ensure that Scholar recruitment includes students self-identifying as first generation or as members of a group that is underrepresented in STEM; (ii) improve performance and resiliency in gateway chemistry and math courses; (iii) achieve a 90% four-year graduation rate, with at least 85% of initial enrollees completing a primary STEM degree. This effort expands a previous Track 1 S-STEM project to strengthen best practices for STEM intervention applied to under-resourced participants. Effectiveness pf project activities will be measured through research and evaluation focusing on multiple dimensions, including quantitative measures of academic success, STEM identity (including self-concept, sense of purpose and STEM socialization), community belonging, resiliency, and indicators of a life of purpose and meaning. This work seeks to advance understanding and plans to disseminate transferable outcomes and best practices locally and nationally, through conference presentations and 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.