Cultivating Talent for Success in STEM

该项目将通过支持马鞍峰学院保留和毕业有经济需要的优秀低收入学生来满足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求。马鞍峰学院是一所西班牙裔服务机构，多年来一直致力于解决影响低收入和代表性不足学生成功的障碍，特别是在stem相关学科。该项目为期六年，将为75名攻读生物学、化学、计算机科学、工程、数学、自然科学和物理等专业的副学士学位或转学学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。主要是一年级学生将获得两到三年的奖学金。除了奖学金，该项目还将包括群体建设活动，以帮助学生之间提供深入联系的机会，以及学术和社会心理教师指导，这两项都被发现对支持服务不足的学生至关重要。该项目的另一个重要特点是加速数学课程，该课程支持学生在一年内准备好微积分，与加州社区大学的标准相比，这是加速的。该项目将评估这些支持和其他最佳实践对提高STEM学生学业成绩的重要性。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目旨在为越来越多的关于STEM教育和社区大学学生支持干预的文献做出贡献。目前的许多研究考察了适用于所有学生的教育方法的成功。这个项目在两个主要方面是独一无二的。首先，该项目考察了奖学金、社会心理支持和数学课程完成对微积分准备的影响，目标是经济困难、有学术天赋的STEM学生。其次，该项目将整合、调整和连接各种成功的校园干预措施，形成一个连贯的、相互关联的网络，为学院的学生提供支持。一项严格的评估计划将分析定量的学生成果数据和定性的过程结果数据，以提供经验证据，证明一种更综合的方法的有效性，以支持和准备社区大学生达到STEM进步的行业和学术标准。该项目将推进在社区大学环境中为本科STEM教育提供课程和支持服务的更大目标。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 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 Saddleback College. Saddleback College is a Hispanic Serving Institution with many years of experience addressing the barriers that impact the success of low-income and underrepresented students, particularly in STEM-related disciplines. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 75 unique full-time students who are pursuing associate’s degrees or transfer degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Physics. Primarily first year students will receive two-to-three-year scholarships. In addition to scholarships, the project will include cohort-building activities to help provide opportunities for deep connections between students, and academic and psychosocial faculty mentorship, both of which have been found to be critical in supporting underserved students. Another important feature of this project is an accelerated mathematics program that supports students getting to Calculus readiness in one year, which is accelerated compared to the norm in the California community colleges. The project will evaluate the importance of these supports and other best practices to achieve improved academic outcomes for STEM students.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This project aims to contribute to a growing body of literature on STEM education and student support interventions within community colleges. Much of the current research examines the success of education approaches as applied to all students. This project is unique in two major areas. First, the project examines the impact of scholarships, psychosocial support, and mathematics course completion to Calculus readiness targeted to financially needy academically talented STEM students. Second, this project will aggregate, align, and connect the various successful campus interventions into a coherent and interconnected web of support for students at the college. A rigorous evaluation plan will analyze quantitative student outcomes data and qualitative process outcomes data to provide empirical evidence on the efficacy of a more integrated approach to supporting and preparing community college students to meet industry and academic standards for STEM advancement. This project will advance the larger goals of providing curricular and supportive services in undergraduate STEM education in a community college environment. 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.