Bolstering STEM Pathways for Students in Rural New England Through a Comprehensive, Multi-Year Learning Community

该项目解决农村学生获得STEM教育经验的问题。来自农村地区和小城镇的学生约占美国中学人口的30%，但往往缺乏鼓舞人心的STEM教育机会和经验。这使得他们不太可能在大学里攻读STEM专业，这是STEM创新人才的潜在损失。这项调查将探讨如何提供一个全面的，多年的学术和个人支持系统可以吸引和留住代表性不足的农村高中学生，特别是女孩，从NH和VT的服务不足的农村地区。它研究的经验如何影响学生的身份作为STEM研究人员，反过来，他们的途径，中学后STEM/ICT活动。农村学生面临的挑战之一是地理上无法获得参加校外STEM/ICT活动的机会。这项长期调查将比较农村代表性不足的学生的经验，他们亲自参加真实的STEM/ICT研究与那些远程参与的学生。一个支持性的STEM/ICT社区的影响也将被调查，因为学生，无论是远程还是虚拟研究，都将获得来自STEM专业人士的指导，来自农村社区的近同龄人导师，标准化考试准备，以及吸引父母和监护人的财务规划，因为他们准备作为一个家庭来浏览大学申请和入学过程，该项目的研究探讨了这样一个问题：“农村高中生的STEM身份如何随着时间的推移而发展，因为他们与同龄人和导师一起参与一个全面的计划，通过指导，大学申请支持和社区外展来增强基于项目的学习？”研究人员假设，与有科学头脑的同龄人、近同龄人和成年人的合作将加强农村学生的意识，即他们也属于一个可以为STEM领域或学科做出有意义贡献的科学家社区。所有学生将完成关于科学身份和归属的年度调查。将对一个分组进行观察和访谈。使用Photovoice，一种基于社区的参与式研究方法，这个子样本还将拍摄在他们的社区从事科学的意义，以及谁在他们的社区从事科学。汇总结果和个案叙述将说明学生经历和结果的共性和差异，并推测可能导致这些差异的程序功能。调查结果将有助于越来越多但目前有限的关于如何吸引和留住STEM和ICT中学后途径的农村学生的研究。将与公众以及区域和国家STEM外联受众分享进展和成果。学生参与者将在其中一些传播中发挥主导作用。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程，信息和通信技术（ICT）该奖项反映了NSF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 addresses access to STEM educational experiences for rural students. Students from rural areas and small towns make up about 30% of the U.S. secondary school population but often lack inspirational STEM educational opportunities and experiences. This makes them less likely to pursue STEM majors in college, which is a potential loss of human talent in STEM innovation. This investigation will explore how providing a comprehensive, multi-year academic and personal support system can attract and retain underrepresented rural high school students, especially girls, from underserved rural areas of NH and VT. It studies how the experience affects students' identity as STEM researchers and, in turn, their pathways to post-secondary STEM/ICT activities. One of the challenges faced by rural students is the geographic inaccessibility of opportunities to participate in outside-of-school STEM/ICT activities. This long-term investigation will compare the experiences of rural underrepresented students who participate in-person in authentic STEM/ICT research with those who participate remotely. The impact of a supportive STEM/ICT community will also be investigated as students, regardless of remote or virtual research, will be provided with mentorship from STEM professionals, near-peer mentors from their rural communities, standardized test preparation, and financial planning that draws in their parents and guardians as they prepare as a family to navigate the college application and admittance process, a critical step in their career pathways in STEM/ICT.The project's research explores the question, “How do rural high school students’ STEM identities develop over time as they engage with peers and mentors in a comprehensive program that enhances project-based learning with mentoring, college application support, and community outreach?” Researchers hypothesize that collaborations with science-minded peers, near-peers, and adults will strengthen rural students’ sense that they, too, belong to a community of scientists who can make meaningful contributions to a STEM field or discipline. All students will complete annual surveys about science identity and belonging. A subgroup will be observed and interviewed. Using Photovoice, a community-based participatory research method, this subsample will also take pictures of what it means to do science in their community, and who does science in their community. Aggregated results and individual case narratives will illustrate commonalities and variations in student experiences and outcomes, and speculate on the program features that may contribute to those differences. The findings will contribute to a growing but currently limited body of research on how to attract and retain rural students in STEM and ICT post-secondary pathways. Progress and results will be shared with the general public, and regional and national STEM outreach audiences. Student participants will take a lead role in some of this dissemination. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.