Scholarships to Accelerate Engineering Leadership and Identity in Graduate Students

该项目将通过支持马萨诸塞州达特茅斯大学（一所全国排名的研究型大学，旨在促进低收入、有学术天赋的低收入学生的学业成功和向上流动）保留和毕业，从而满足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。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为90名攻读加速研究生学士/硕士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金工程学学位。学生将在硕士学习年度获得为期一年的奖学金。该计划利用已建立的加速bs / ms工程学院支持海洋经济的项目和研究工作。它旨在为高成就、低收入的本科生招生和劳动力发展战略提供一个协调的项目，为硕士水平的学生准备和毕业，以应对海洋生物技术、海洋可再生能源、海洋人工智能和机器人、海洋恢复、水资源和保护等方面的挑战。该项目将为学生提供奖学金，让他们参加旨在提高自我效能和工程身份发展的活动。该项目的智力价值将是在继续通过研究生学位获得工程专业的本科生中产生关于自我效能感和工程身份的作用的知识。更广泛的影响将是有效的基于证据的课程和课外活动的实施和可持续性，包括专业发展实践，为追求硕士学位的高成就低收入学生做好准备，以便他们进入劳动力市场或攻读工程博士学位。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、成绩优异的研究生的STEM学位完成率。该计划解决了以下三个关键需求：(1)促进成绩优异的低收入学生获得研究生学位，以满足对具有工程硕士水平准备的劳动力的需求；(2)实施基于证据的学术和学生支持活动，促进非认知因素，如提高自我效能感和工程身份发展，帮助本科生过渡到研究生学位课程；(3)培养技术熟练的领导者。创业和创新，以建立和支持新英格兰南海岸的经济，这是一个以高度贫困为特征的多元化后工业化地区。该计划的具体目标是(1)将有经济需求的学生申请和招聘人数增加一倍，以加速学士/硕士学位(3)提高工程研究生的研究、领导和创业技能；(4)产生和传播有关工程身份和自我效能的知识，以及影响学生招生、坚持和硕士学位获得的循证课程和课外活动。研究表明，坚持学习工程学的学生往往表现出高水平的自我效能感，并认为自己属于工程学社区。虽然已经有关于工程身份在从K-12到高等教育过渡中的作用的研究，但很少有关于工程身份或与自我效能感相关的挑战的研究调查了从本科到研究生水平课程的过渡。此外，在这一过渡时期，机构支持对工程研究生的录取和坚持的影响，以及工程认同和自我效能感发展在这一过程中的作用的研究很少。研究问题将包括：(1)项目的课程和课外活动在多大程度上增加了低收入的、有学术天赋的学生进入工程研究生项目的数量？(2)在LIAT学生的课程和课外活动体验中，哪些认知和非认知方面支持工程认同和自我效能感？(3)积极的工程认同和自我效能感在多大程度上影响了低收入学术天才学生参与和坚持攻读工程研究生学位？研究问题将通过学生招募和保留数据、项目调查和访谈来解决。外部评估人员将与项目团队合作，对年度项目成果进行形成性和总结性评估。总体而言，该项目有望填补在通过研究生学位继续攻读工程专业的本科生中，自我效能感和工程认同的作用的知识生成方面的空白。项目研究结果将提交给STEM教育和工程社区，并有助于建立知识库，了解在研究生水平的工程课程中，什么对谁有效，学生成功和毕业。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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-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, a nationally ranked research university that facilitates academic success and upward mobility of low-income, academically talented students. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 90 unique full-time students who are pursuing accelerated graduate B.S./M.S. degrees in engineering. Students will receive one-year scholarships in the master’s year of study. The program leverages established accelerated B.S/M.S. programs and research efforts in the college of engineering that support the maritime economy. It is designed to provide a coordinated program for high-achieving, low-income undergraduate student recruitment, and workforce development strategies to prepare and graduate M.S.-level students to address challenges in marine biotechnology, marine renewable energy, marine artificial intelligence and robotics, marine restoration, and water resources and protection. The project will provide scholarships to students to allow them to participate in activities that are intended to foster improved self-efficacy and engineering identity development. The intellectual merit of the project will be knowledge generation on the role of self-efficacy and engineering identity among undergraduate students who continue to pursue engineering through graduate degree attainment. The broader impact will be the implementation and sustainability of effective evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities, including professional development practices, for high-achieving, low-income students pursuing master’s degrees so they are prepared for entry into the workforce or graduate Ph.D. programs in engineering.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving graduate students with demonstrated financial need. The program addresses the following three critical needs: (1) promotion of graduate degree attainment by high-achieving, low-income students to address demands for a workforce with master’s-level preparation in engineering, (2) implementation of evidence-based academic and student support activities that foster non-cognitive factors such as improved self-efficacy and engineering identity development and help undergraduate students make the transition to graduate degree programs, and (3) graduation of leaders skilled in technology, entrepreneurship and innovation to build and support the economy of the South Coast of New England, a diverse, post-industrial region characterized by high poverty. The specific aims for the program are to (1) double the application and recruitment of students with demonstrated financial need to accelerated B.S./M.S. programs in engineering, (2) double the participation, student success, and graduation of engineering M.S. students, (3) advance the research, leadership and entrepreneurship skills of engineering graduate students, and (4) generate and disseminate knowledge on engineering identity and self-efficacy, and evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities that affect student recruitment, persistence, and M.S. degree attainment. Research has shown that students who persist in engineering tend to exhibit high levels of self-efficacy and identify themselves as belonging to an engineering community. While there have been studies on the role of engineering identity on the transition from K-12 to post-secondary education, few studies on either engineering identity or challenges related to self-efficacy have investigated the transition from undergraduate to graduate-level programs. Furthermore, there have been few studies of the impact of institutional support during these transitional years on recruitment and persistence of engineering graduate students, and the role of engineering identity and self-efficacy development in this process. Research questions will include: (1) To what extent do the project’s curricular and co-curricular activities increase the number of low-income, academically talented students entering graduate programs in engineering? (2) What cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of students’ experiences with curricular and co-curricular activities support engineering identity and self-efficacy among LIAT students? and (3) To what extent do positive engineering identity and self-efficacy serve as factors in participation and persistence of low-income academically talented students in engineering graduate degrees? Research questions will be addressed using student recruitment and retention data, program surveys, and interviews. An external evaluator will work with the project team to provide formative and summative assessments of yearly program outcomes. Overall, the project is expected to fill the gap in knowledge generation on the role of self-efficacy and engineering identity among undergraduate students who continue to pursue engineering through graduate degree attainment. Project findings will be presented to the STEM education and engineering communities and contribute to the knowledge base about what works for whom in retention, student success, and graduation in graduate-level engineering programs. 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.