Strengthening the Skill and Will to Succeed in STEM

该项目将通过支持内华达大学拉斯维加斯分校表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入家庭学生的保留和毕业，为满足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。内华达大学拉斯维加斯分校是一所西班牙裔服务机构，也是一所亚裔美国人和美洲原住民太平洋岛民服务机构。该项目为期六年，将为43名攻读生物科学学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。15名一年级学生将获得长达4年的奖学金支持，28名高年级学生将获得长达2.5年的奖学金。该项目旨在通过将学习技能发展和激励活动纳入生物学入门课程，提高学生在学位课程中的保留率。该项目旨在通过同伴和教师指导、参与本科生研究经历和实习、接触职业机会、通过每月的专业发展研讨会培养职业准备和职业认同，提高毕业率。除了为重点队列提供奖学金支持外，项目活动将在项目期间影响超过4,000名生物学学生的学习经验，之后每学期将影响约1,000名学生。由于内华达大学拉斯维加斯分校拥有大量的第一代大学生和历史上代表性不足的学生，因此该项目有可能扩大STEM领域的参与。该项目的一个中心目标是促进对如何将学习技能培训材料整合到课程中并按比例扩展以支持大规模招生环境中不同学生的理解。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目的具体目标包括通过将学习技能发展和激励活动纳入生物学入门课程来提高第一年学生的保留率，通过接触就业机会和参与本科生研究和实习机会来提高毕业率，以及研究以不同形式（即多媒体或个性化版本）提供的学习技能培训材料组合的有效性。该项目有可能促进对嵌入简短的数字学习技能培训和激励性写作活动如何有益于学生在科学课程中的动机、学习行为、表现和学业成功的理解。所产生的证据可用于指导更广泛地采用这些可扩展的、可持续的、易于共享的资源，通过将这些资源提供给STEM本科生的大量受众，扩大其影响，这些受众可能受益于提高的技能和学习意愿。本项目将采用文化响应性评估框架进行评估。将使用混合方法融合和基于目标的方法来评估项目在实现既定目标和成果方面的有效性，使用来自学生参与嵌入式学习技能培训和激励支持模块的信息，学者对奖学金计划评估调查的反馈，课程保留率，在轨毕业进度状态，毕业率以及来自学生研究和实习参与的记录信息。该项目的成果将通过参加区域教学和学习会议、国家教育研究会议和在以大学科学教育为重点的期刊上发表，在地方到国家范围内提供。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 the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The University of Nevada Las Vegas is a Hispanic Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 43 unique full time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences. Fifteen first year students will receive up to 4 years of scholarship support, and 28 upperclassmen will receive scholarships for up to 2.5 years. This project aims to foster increased retention of students within the degree program through incorporation of learning skill development and motivational activities into the introductory biology courses. The project aims to foster increased graduation rates through peer and faculty mentorship, engagement in undergraduate research experiences and internships, exposure to career opportunities, and development of career readiness and professional identity through monthly professional development workshops. In addition to providing scholarship support for the focal cohort, project activities will impact the learning experience of more than 4,000 biology students across the duration of the project and approximately 1,000 students per semester thereafter. Because the University of Nevada Las Vegas has a large population of first-generation college students and of historically underrepresented students, this project has the potential to broaden participation in STEM fields. A central aim of the project is to advance understanding of how learning skill training materials can be integrated into courses and scaled to support diverse students in large enrollment settings.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific goals of the project include increasing first-year retention of students through incorporation of learning skill development and motivational activities into introductory biology courses, increasing graduation rates through exposure to career opportunities and participation in undergraduate research and internship opportunities, and studying the effectiveness of combinations of learning skill training materials delivered in different formats (i.e., multimedia or personalized versions). This project has the potential to advance understanding of how embedding brief digital learning skill trainings and motivational writing activities might benefit students’ motivations, learning behaviors, performance, and academic success in their science programs. Evidence generated can be used to guide the broader adoption of these scalable, sustainable, and easily shared resources to broaden their impact by delivering them to the large audiences of STEM undergraduates that may benefit from enhanced skill and will to learn. This project will be evaluated using a culturally responsive evaluation framework. A mixed-methods convergent and objectives-based approach will be used to evaluate how effective the project is in meeting established goals and outcomes, using information from student participation in the embedded learning skill training and motivational support modules, scholar responses on scholarship program evaluation surveys, course retention rates, on-track graduation progress status, graduation rates, and documented information from students’ research and internship engagement. Results of the project will be made available across a local to national scale through participation in regional teaching and learning conferences, national educational research conferences, and publication in journals focused on collegiate science education. 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.