Chesapeake Scholars in the Physical Sciences

该项目将通过支持马里兰州大学帕克分校表现出经济需要的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业，促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家的需求。在五年的时间里，该项目将为28名正在攻读六个物理科学学科理学学士学位的独特本科生提供奖学金：天文学，大气和海洋科学，生物化学，化学，地质学和物理学。新入学的一年级学生将获得四年的奖学金支持，而转学生将获得长达三年的支持。该项目还将为在大一期间申报物理科学专业的学生提供三年的支持。该计划的学者参与者将得到教师指导计划和同行指导计划的支持。学生将有机会在大学实验室获得研究经验，并将有机会在专业会议上展示他们的研究成果。由于马里兰州大学位于国家首都地区，学者们将有机会参观国家实验室和其他联邦科学设施。其他学生支持服务，包括职业咨询和研究生院的准备。项目领导将研究项目活动如何产生对学科和切萨皮克学者群体的归属感，以及该计划是否增加了对学术课程的参与并减少了流失。该项目将支持在该地区和全国范围内增加国内培训的STEM劳动力。它还将寻求更普遍地改变大学本科生的教育经验。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。该计划的四个具体目标是：（1）增加在大学录取的具有学术天赋的学士学位候选人中的保留，并宣布物理科学专业;（2）增加在大一期间或之后宣布物理科学专业的学术天赋学生中的保留;（3）增加宣布物理科学专业的学术天赋转学生中的保留;（4）增加在物理科学专业的学术天赋转学生中的保留。（4）增强学生对学科和群体的归属感。马里兰州大学之前的两个S-STEM项目已经证明了学习工程和物理的学术天才低收入学生的成功保留。切萨皮克学者计划将调查这种保留成功是否可以扩展到更大的学生群体学习更广泛的物理科学学科。更一般地说，该项目将寻求促进学生在本科STEM教育中坚持的理解。使用每个物理科学学位的典型四年计划，项目领导已经确定了关键课程序列（数学，物理和化学），在其中跟踪从学期到学期的保留。学生保留率从学期到学期将跟踪这些课程序列与流程图，特别是为切萨皮克学者和一般学生团体。在物理科学学位课程的学生保留将比较在关系到一年和两年的保留目标，包括保留在专业，在物理科学，并在大学广泛。内部和外部评价的结果将予以传播，以便学者和公众能够获得评价结果。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 by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Maryland, College Park. Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in six physical science disciplines: Astronomy, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics. Incoming first year students will receive four years of scholarship support, while transfer students will receive up to three years of support. The project will also provide three years of support for students who declare a physical science major during their freshman year. Scholar participants in the program will be supported by both a faculty mentoring program and a peer mentoring program. Students will have access to research experiences in university lab, and will have the opportunity to present the results of their research at professional conferences. Due to the University of Maryland’s location in the national capital region, scholars will have the opportunity to visit national labs and other federal science facilities. Other student support services are available, including career advising and preparation for graduate school. The project leadership will study how well the programmatic activities engender a sense of belonging towards the disciplines and the Chesapeake Scholars cohort, and whether the program increases engagement in the academic programs and decreases attrition. The project will support an increase in the domestically trained STEM workforce in the region and nationally. It will also seek to transform the educational experience of undergraduates in the university more generally. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The four specific goals of the program are to: (1) increase retention among academically talented bachelor’s degree candidates who matriculate at the university with a declared physical science major; (2) increase retention among academically talented students who declare a physical science major during or after their freshman year; (3) increase retention among academically talented transfer students who declare a physical science major; and (4) increase students’ self-reported sense of belonging to their disciplines and their cohort. Two prior S-STEM programs at the University of Maryland have demonstrated the successful retention of academically talented low-income students studying engineering and physics. The Chesapeake Scholars program will investigate whether this retention success can be extended to a larger cohort of students studying a wider range of physical science disciplines. More generally, the project will seek to advance the understanding of student persistence in undergraduate STEM education. Using typical four-year plans for each physical science degree, the project leadership has identified key course sequences (in math, physics, and chemistry) within which to track retention from semester-to-semester. Student retention rates from semester to semester will be tracked in these course sequences with flow diagrams, specifically for the Chesapeake Scholars and for the general student body. Student retention in the physical science degree programs will be compared in relation to the one-year and two-year retention goals, including retention in-major, in the physical sciences, and within the college broadly. The results of internal and external evaluations will be disseminated so that scholars and the public have access to the findings. 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.