Research-based Interventions for STEM Engagement

该项目将有助于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要，通过支持在黑山州立大学表现出经济需要的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。 黑山州立大学是一所农村服务机构，36%的本科生有资格获得佩尔赠款。在六年的时间里，该项目将为24名正在攻读生物学、化学、环境物理科学、数学和物理科学学士学位的独特学生提供奖学金。参与者将获得奖学金作为进入一年级的学生，并获得四年的支持。除了奖学金，学生还将获得教师指导，学习社区（共同注册的课程和在霍尔斯的共同地点），嵌入式辅导/同伴指导，本科研究经验，以及一个新的STEM途径课程，专注于为研究生院和STEM职业做准备。BHSU教师将参加由国家科学教学研究所主办的移动的暑期研究所，帮助他们将积极解决问题和高影响力的实践融入教学中。植根于最佳实践，项目活动不仅将为学生提供相关技能和经验，而且还将培养自我效能和STEM身份，这已被证明可以增加学生坚持，毕业和进入STEM劳动力的可能性。参与者应该从该项目提供的支持中受益，他们也将为他们在以后的生活中加入的研究团队的成功和适应力做出贡献。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成率。具体目标有五个：1）提高低收入学生在STEM中的坚持率和毕业率; 2）提高低收入学生在STEM入门课程中的表现; 3）提高低收入学生在STEM中的自我效能，STEM身份和归属感; 4）增加在高需求STEM职业中就业或就读研究生院的低收入学生人数; 5）评估干预措施的有效性，将成功的干预措施制度化，并将结果传播给更广泛的STEM社区。STEM教育研究人员将成为项目领导团队的一部分，并将与PI和外部评估人员合作，以确定拟议干预措施对BHSU学生群体的影响，并着眼于制度化。教师指导和本科生研究等干预措施已得到广泛研究。该团队预计这些将取得成功，但仍将进行形成性和总结性评估，以了解特定于BHSU的细微差别。对STEM途径课程等新干预措施的审查将为增加中学后STEM教育的知识体系提供机会。该团队将通过出版物和演讲在STEM教育界广泛分享成果，以便其他小型，农村，主要是本科院校可以在自己的校园中适应和实施这些干预措施。 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 Black Hills State University. Black Hills State University is a rural-serving institution with 36% of undergraduates eligible for Pell grants. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 24 unique students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, chemistry, environmental physical science, mathematics, and physical science. Participants will be awarded scholarships as entering first-year students and receive four years of support. In addition to scholarships, students will be provided with Faculty Mentoring, Learning Communities (co-enrolled courses and co-location in residence halls), Embedded Tutoring/Peer Instruction, Undergraduate Research Experiences, and a new STEM Pathways Course focused on preparing for graduate school and STEM careers. BHSU faculty will attend a Mobile Summer Institute facilitated by the National Institute on Scientific Teaching to help them integrate active problem solving and high-impact practices into their instruction. Rooted in best practices, project activities will not only prepare students with relevant skills and experiences, but will also foster self-efficacy and STEM identity, which have been shown to increase the likelihood that students will persist, graduate, and enter the STEM workforce. Participants should benefit personally from the support offered by the project, and they will also contribute to the success and resilience of research teams they join later in life.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are five specific objectives: 1) To increase the persistence and graduation rates among low-income students in STEM; 2) To increase low-income students’ performance in gateway courses in STEM; 3) To increase low-income students’ self-efficacy, STEM identity and sense of belonging in STEM; 4) To increase the number of low-income students who obtain employment in high-demand STEM careers or enroll in graduate school; 5) To evaluate interventions for efficacy, institutionalizing those that are successful and disseminating results to the wider STEM community. A STEM educational researcher will be part of the project leadership team and will work with the PI and external evaluator to determine impacts of the proposed interventions on the BHSU student population with an eye toward institutionalization. Interventions such as faculty mentoring and undergraduate research have been widely studied. The team anticipates these will meet with success, though formative and summative evaluation will still be conducted to understand nuances specific to BHSU. An examination of new interventions, such as the STEM Pathways course, will provide an opportunity to add to the body of knowledge about postsecondary STEM education. The team will share results broadly within the STEM education community through publications and presentations so that other small, rural, primarily undergraduate institutions can adapt and implement these interventions on their own campuses. 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.