Enhanced Learning and Training Experiences to Support Talented, Low-Income STEM Students

该项目将为全国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做出贡献，通过支持在密苏里州立大学留住和毕业有经济需求的高成就、低收入学生。在为期6年的时间里，该项目将为27名正在攻读生物、化学、计算机科学、工程、数学、物理、天文学和材料科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将通过奖学金获得长达四年的支持。除了提供大量奖学金以减少参与者的工作需求或增加债务的需求外，该项目还将实施高质量的循证课程和联合课程活动，以支持他们的成功，包括积极主动的建议、辅导、教师和同行指导、参加专业会议，以及增加获得研究机会、实习机会、研究生院和行业的特邀演讲者的机会。这个项目的智力价值是通过实施、监测和记录关于学生成功的有针对性的最佳实践来推进知识，方法建立在现有文献研究的基础上。该项目将在毕业后对参与的学生、他们的家庭和社区产生积极影响，并将成为对STEM教育，特别是对经济困难学生的有意义、有目的和可持续支持的成功典范。最终，该项目将有助于促进更公平地参与STEM，并将为学生提供坚实的机会，将来自较低社会经济地位的挑战转变为有回报的职业，从而实现社会流动性，并为我们的国家竞争力和安全做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是提高STEM领域低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目将在学术上和财政上支持那些经济需求未得到满足的学生成功进入STEM学科，以促进他们成功毕业。该项目的预期学生成果是提高参与者的保留率和毕业率，提高入门课程的成绩，以及更多的学生攻读STEM专业的研究生院或直接加入STEM工作队伍。将采用混合方法对该项目进行评估，收集和分析定量和定性数据，并进行形成性和总结性评估，以发现在这方面支持或阻碍成功的因素。主要发现将在整个校园、该项目的网站以及学术期刊和专业会议上传播。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 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 Missouri State University. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 27 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degree in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics, Astronomy & Material Science. First-year students will receive up to four years of support through scholarships. In addition to providing substantial scholarships to reduce the participants’ need to work or their need to increase their debt, this project will implement high quality evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support their success, including proactive advising, tutoring, faculty and peer mentoring, participation at professional conferences, as well as increased access to research opportunities, internships, guest speakers from graduate schools and industry. The intellectual merit of this project is to advance knowledge by implementing, monitoring, and documenting targeted best practices on student success, with approaches that build on current research in the literature. This project will positively impact participating students, their families and their communities beyond graduation and it will serve as a successful model for meaningful, intentional, and sustainable support for STEM education, especially for financially challenged students. Ultimately, this project will help promote more equitable participation in STEM and will provide students with solid opportunities to transform the challenge of coming from a lower socio-economic status into a rewarding career, thus achieving social mobility, and contribute to our national competitiveness and security.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. This project will academically and financially support the success of students entering STEM disciplines who have unmet financial needs to promote successful graduation. The expected student outcomes of this project are increased retention and graduation rates of participants, improved grades in their introductory gateway courses, and increased number of them pursuing graduate school in a STEM discipline or joining the STEM workforce directly. The project will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data and conducting formative and summative assessments to discover factors that support or hinder success in this context. The main findings will be disseminated across campus, on the project’s website and in academic journals and professional conferences. 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.