Enhancing Career Pathways of Talented Financially Disadvantaged Biology STEM Students Through Scholarships and Inclusive Transformative Academic Experiences

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需要，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在佛罗里达国际大学（FIU）的经济需要。FIU是一个公共卡内基R1研究和西班牙裔服务机构。在六年的时间里，该项目将通过两个队列为26名攻读生物科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得最多八个学期/四个学年的奖学金支持。为了确保学生成功的职业道路，该项目将使用实践模式（队列）社区和导师网络（资深同行，教师和学术顾问），并将资金与循证学术和课外活动相结合，以促进学生的成功和竞争力。互补的实施旨在增强自我归属感和科学身份的包容性的氛围下，转化为更高的学生参与度，学习成绩，持久性和学位完成。学者的学术观点，理解科学发现的能力和科学沟通技巧，通过积极参与期刊俱乐部，本科生研究经验的实验室课程和研究实习而正式化，将丰富他们的专业发展，并为金融情报室的知识环境做出贡献。该项目旨在确保26名历史上被边缘化的学生感到被包容和被重视，并属于他们的学术社区。作为回报，这些学者将能够进入劳动力准备带来他们的不同经验和工作在不同的团队，为全球关注的生物退化与气候变化，生物恢复，流行病爆发，并建立一代科学教育工作者的目标开发新的解决方案。有经济需求的优秀大学生。该项目的具体目标是：（一）推行有效的生物学课程“量化课堂生物学”（Quantifying Biology in the Classroom，QBIC），其特色包括：强调对原始文献的批判性分析、将数学技能融入实验生物学，以及使用本科生学习助理来加强STEM学者的学术和专业培训;（2）在包容的气氛下，通过促进以小组为基础的学习小组、导师网络和研究经验，增强学者的自我归属感和科学身份;（3）在项目早期实施新的职业发展模块，并生成纵向数据，以确定这些实施对学生成功的影响;（4）通过微证书专业培训提高STEM核心能力。在逻辑模型的指导下，将采用混合方法对项目进行形成性和总结性评价。评价小组将每年收集关于项目活动的质量、有效性和影响的定量和定性数据。项目研究结果将在科学教育会议上向STEM社区传播，并以手稿形式编写，供在科学教育期刊上发表。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 Florida International University (FIU). FIU is a public Carnegie R1 Research and Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to a total of 26 unique full-time students through two cohorts who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological Sciences. First-year students will receive up to eight semesters/ four academic years of scholarship support. To ensure successful student career pathways, the project will use a community of practice model (cohort) and a network of mentorship (senior peers, faculty, and academic advisors), and will integrate funding with evidence-based academic and co-curricular activities to promote student success and competitiveness in the workforce. Complementary implementations are designed to enhance self-belonging and science identity under an atmosphere of inclusiveness, translating into higher student engagement, academic performance, persistence, and degree completion. The scholars’ academic perspective, ability to comprehend scientific findings, and scientific communication skills, formalized by active engagement in journal clubs, lab courses for undergraduate research experiences, and research internships, will enrich their professional development and contribute to the FIU intellectual environment. This project aims to ensure that 26 historically marginalized students feel included and valued, and that they belong within their academic communities. In return, these scholars will be able to enter the workforce prepared to bring their diverse experiences and work in diverse teams with the goal of developing new solutions for global concerns related to biological degradation by climate change, biological restoration, pandemic outbreaks, and building the generation of science educators.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project specific aims are: (1) to implement an effective biology curriculum, the Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC), which features: emphasis in critical analyses of primary literature, integration of math skills into experimental biology, and the use of undergraduate learning assistants to enhance the academic and professional training of STEM scholars; (2) to enhance self-belonging and science identity of scholars under an atmosphere of inclusiveness by facilitating small cohort-based learning groups, mentorship networks, and research experiences; (3) to implement novel career development modules during the program’s early years, and generate longitudinal data determining the effect of these implementations on student success; and (4) to enhance core STEM competencies through micro-credential professional training. A mixed-methods approach will be used for the formative and summative evaluation of the project guided by a logic model. The evaluation team will conduct annual collections of quantitative and qualitative data on the quality, effectiveness, and impacts of project activities. Project findings will be disseminated to the STEM community at science education conferences, and prepared in manuscripts for publication in science education journals. 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.