Multilevel Mentoring to Improve Belonging, Metacognition, and Science Identity of Bachelor Degree-Seeking Science and Mathematics Students

该项目将有助于满足国家对训练有素的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。 它将通过支持在丹尼森大学（一所私立文理学院）有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业来实现这一目标。在五年的时间里，该项目将为32名攻读生物学、生物化学、化学、地球科学、数学或计算机科学学士学位的本科生提供奖学金。这些学者将被录取在八个学生的四个队列，并获得长达四年的奖学金支持。 该项目旨在通过将奖学金与旨在帮助学生适应校园，学业进步，作为研究人员成长并为STEM劳动力做好准备的多层次指导计划联系起来，以提高STEM领域的学生毕业率。该项目有可能增加对如何扩大STEM领域参与的理解，并了解多层次的指导如何支持低收入学生在STEM领域的保留和毕业。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就本科生在STEM领域的学位完成率。该项目的四个主要目标是：（1）向低收入学生提供财政支助;（2）建立一个旨在增加学者归属感的群体结构;（3）实施一个包括同侪、学术、研究和职业指导的多层次方案;以及（4）进行正式的评估和评价，以探讨导师制在培养学者归属感、科学认同感和元认知，同时也增加了持久性和STEM毕业。虽然这个项目的每个组成部分都被证明会影响学生在STEM中的坚持，但人们对元认知和科学身份的多层次指导的使用知之甚少。因此，该项目可以通过影响科学身份和元认知等关键因素来增加对有效指导如何支持STEM学生成功的理解。项目成果将通过一个已建立的文科学院区域网络、在全国专业会议上的演讲以及在侧重于中学后STEM教育的场所的出版物提供。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 well-prepared 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 Denison University, a private, liberal arts college. Over its five-year duration, this project will provide scholarships to 32 undergraduate students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics, or Computer Science. These Scholars will be admitted in four cohorts of eight students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. The project aims to increase student graduation in STEM fields by linking scholarships to a multilevel mentoring program designed to help students acclimate to campus, progress academically, grow as researchers, and prepare for the STEM workforce. This project has the potential to increase understanding about how to broaden participation in STEM fields and to learn how multilevel mentoring can support retention and graduation of low-income students in STEM.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. The four primary aims of the project are to: (1) provide financial support to low-income students; (2) create a cohort structure designed to increase Scholars' feelings of belonging; (3) Implement a multilevel program of peer, academic, research, and career mentoring; and (4) engage in formal assessment and evaluation to explore the role of mentoring in developing Scholars' sense of belonging, science identity, and metacognition, while also increasing persistence and STEM graduation. Though each component of this project has been demonstrated to affect student persistence in STEM, little is known about the use of multilevel mentoring on metacognition and science identity. As such, this project may increase understanding about how effective mentoring may support STEM student success by affecting key factors such as science identity and metacognition. Project results will be made available through an established regional network of liberal arts colleges, presentations at national professional conferences and publications in venues focused on post-secondary STEM education. 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.