Fostering Adaptive Expertise to Increase Retention and Graduation of Low-Income STEM Students

该项目将有助于国家需要受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业证明在史蒂文斯理工学院的经济需要。在为期六年的时间里，该项目将为50名正在攻读S-STEM合格学科学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金，这些学科涵盖数学，科学和工程。在史蒂文斯学习的第一个学期后，符合资格要求的低收入学生将能够申请最多七个学期的奖学金支持。ADAPT计划的目标是提高低收入学术天才STEM学生的保留率和毕业率。项目活动将包括采用关于辅导方案的最佳做法，以支持适应性知识产权学者，并制定有针对性的充实活动，重点是在学者中培养适应性专门知识的特点。此外，项目小组预计将整合新的方案，专门支持低收入学生与现有的校园支持，并实施模块，以提高部门和机构对低收入学生所面临的挑战的认识。该计划将有助于学术部门和大学如何更好地支持低收入STEM学生坚持毕业的STEM知识库。该计划的关键要素可以被其他大学复制，以更好地支持低收入STEM学生的成功，并将适应支持其他服务不足和弱势STEM学生群体。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生与证明财政需要完成STEM学位。该项目的三个具体目标是调整最佳做法，以创造一个支持和培养学者的环境，制定活动，重点是培养适应性的专门知识的特点，在学者，并增加部门和机构的支持低收入学生。在学习科学文献中，具有自适应专长的个体用额外的、特定的认知倾向来补充专家的内容知识，这些认知倾向支持这种内容知识在实践中的应用。该项目的行动理论是，一个精心设计的教师，同行和校友队列/指导计划，专门针对自适应专业知识的发展，将增加适应学者的弹性感，并支持对本科学位完成的坚持。一项有针对性的研究将跟踪ADAPT学者在整个学习过程中适应性的变化，同时指出哪些编程元素在支持学生成长方面最有效。如果成功，拟议的努力可能会导致一个可复制和可扩展的国家模式，如何促进自适应专业知识的增长，以支持低收入学生完成他们的STEM学位。形成性评价和总结性评价的综合组成部分将确保项目目标的顺利完成。传播工作将与更大的STEM教育界分享计划材料和研究结果，以促进STEM领域的多元化和包容性参与。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-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Stevens Institute of Technology. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 50 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in S-STEM eligible disciplines spanning math, science, and engineering. After their first semester of study at Stevens, low-income students who meet eligibility requirements will be able to apply for up to seven semesters of scholarship support. The goal of the ADAPT program is to increase retention and graduation rates of low-income academically talented STEM students. Project activities will include the adoption of best practices with regards to mentoring programs to support the ADAPT Scholars and the development of targeted enrichment activities focused on fostering the characteristics of Adaptive Expertise within the Scholars. Additionally, the project team expects to integrate new programming specifically supporting low-income students with existing campus supports and to implement modules to increase departmental and institutional awareness of the challenges faced by low-income students. The program will contribute to the STEM knowledge base of how academic departments and universities can better support low-income STEM student persistence through graduation. Key elements of the program may be replicable by other universities seeking to better support the success of their low-income STEM students and will be adaptable to support other underserved and vulnerable STEM student groups. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Three specific aims of the project are to adapt best practices to create a supportive and nurturing Scholar environment, to develop activities focused on fostering the characteristics of Adaptive Expertise within the Scholars, and to increase departmental and institutional supports for low-income students. In the learning science literature individuals with Adaptive Expertise complement the content knowledge of an expert with additional, specific cognitive dispositions which support the application of this content knowledge in practice. The project's theory of action is that a well-designed faculty, peer, and alumni cohort/mentoring program specifically targeting the development of Adaptive Expertise will increase the sense of resiliency in ADAPT Scholars and support persistence towards undergraduate degree completion. A targeted research study will track changes in adaptiveness in the ADAPT Scholars throughout their studies while indicating which programming elements are most effective in supporting such student growth. If successful, the proposed effort could lead to a replicable and scalable national model of how facilitation in the growth of Adaptive Expertise can support low-income students through completion of their STEM degrees. An integrated formative and summative evaluation component will ensure successful completion of project objectives. Dissemination efforts will share program materials and findings with the larger STEM educational community seeking to promote diverse and inclusive participation in STEM fields. 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.