HSI Pilot Project: San Antonio College’s Campeones de STEM

在不断改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这一Track 1试点项目旨在通过发展导师机会和奖学金，提高以科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)为重点的课程的大学生招生、参与和课程保留率。该项目对于满足和满足大圣安东尼奥地区和国家地区高需求、高薪STEM相关工作的指数级需求至关重要。重要的是，鉴于在获得STEM学位方面持续存在的种族和族裔不平等，西班牙裔和低收入STEM专业学生的持久率较低，解决中学到高等教育和向大学过渡中与STEM有关的认识差距是及时的。为了解决这些问题，我们的项目将为一年级学生提供领导能力的机会，并由行业和学术专家提供关于STEM知识传播战略的培训，以重点关注目标受众，即具有相似社会经济背景的中学生。我们的项目目标将包括建立圣安东尼奥学院(SAC)Campeones de STEM Academy，这是一个为期两天的学院，旨在振兴和加强SAC现有的STEM课程。Campeones de STEM计划的主要目标是提高SAC STEM课程的学生参与率和课程保留率，同时丰富目标中学的中学STEM教育。该项目将为目前在学院第一年入学的选定的STEM专业学生提供奖学金。这一机会将把这些精选的STEM学员与SAC服务区一所市中心中学的精选普通科学课程配对。项目活动包括场内和场外活动，例如与当地和知名的STEM领导人进行访问、实践科学实验、实地考察当地的STEM中心和博物馆，以及参观SAC STEM部门、教室和实验室。预期结果包括提高学生在STEM课程中的留存率，并使中学生更多地参与STEM教育。我们的项目旨在调查以下研究问题：1)SAC的Campeones de STEM Academy是否显著提高了一年级大学生的STEM意识，从而提高了他们的课程参与度、坚持性和PGR？2)STEM向中等教育学生推广是否有效地提高了他们对STEM领域的兴趣？3)与STEM相关的非正式活动，包括由大学STEM教员设计的动手科学实验和辅导，是否改善了STEM中基于榜样的同行学习努力，并增加了一年级大学生的STEM课程参与率和保留率？用于评估这些问题的研究方法将包括从定量和定性数据汇编的具体指标。预期结果包括提高中学生和大学一年级学生对STEM领域的普遍认识和兴趣，提高SAC参与者的坚持率、生产率(PGR)和课程完成率，并通过非正式教育活动和辅导发展中学生与STEM相关的技能。除了提高学术价值外，这个项目还有可能通过其对等学习和领导作用在社会层面产生更广泛的影响。该项目通过有意的干预策略获得信息，例如接触以STEM为重点的内容，与当地地区、STEM领导人互动，奖学金驱动的指导计划，以及在其学校与资源贫乏的人群进行点对点的机会。重要的是，Campeones de STEM项目还将构成Track 2跨机构社区计划的基础，以提高STEM领域的入学率和保留率。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSI的能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 Pilot Project aims to enhance college student recruitment, participation, and course retention in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-focused courses through the development of mentorship opportunities and scholarships. The project will be critical for meeting and fulfilling exponential demands in high-demand, high paying STEM related jobs in the greater San Antonio area and the national region. Importantly, given that persistent racial and ethnic inequality in STEM degree attainment, with lower persistence rates of Hispanic, and low-income STEM majors, it is timely to address STEM-related awareness gaps in secondary-to-higher education and transition to college. To solve these problems, our project will provide leadership opportunities to first-year students, with training from industry and academic experts on STEM-knowledge dissemination strategies to focused target audiences namely, secondary school children from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Our project goals will include the establishment of a San Antonio College (SAC) Campeones de STEM Academy, a two-day institute designed to invigorate and enhance SAC’s existing STEM programs.The principal goal of Campeones de STEM initiative is to improve student participation and course retention in STEM courses at SAC, while enriching secondary STEM education at a target middle school. The project will provide scholarships to selected STEM major students currently enrolled in their first year at the college. This opportunity will pair these selected Campeones de STEM participants with selected general science courses at an inner-city middle school in SAC’s service-area. Project activities include on- and off-site events, such as visits with local and renowned STEM leaders, hands-on science experiments, and field trips to local STEM centers and museums as well as a tour of the SAC STEM departments, classrooms, and laboratories. Expected outcomes include increased student retention in STEM courses and significantly greater involvement of secondary school children in STEM education. Our project aims will investigate the following research questions: 1) Does SAC’s Campeones de STEM Academy significantly improve STEM awareness, and thereby, course participation, persistence, and PGR in first-year college students? 2) Is STEM outreach to secondary education students effective in improving interest in the STEM fields? and 3) Do informal STEM-related activities, including hands-on science experiments designed by college STEM faculty, and mentoring improve role model-based peer-learning endeavors in STEM and result in an incremental increase in STEM course participation and retention in first-year college students? Research methodologies used to asses these questions will include specified metrics compiled from quantitative and qualitative data. Expected results include an increase in general awareness and interest in the STEM fields for both secondary middle school students and first-year college students, higher rates of persistence, productive grade rate (PGR), and course completion for the SAC participants, and the development of the secondary school students’ STEM-related skills through informal educational activities and mentorship. Apart from improved academic merits, this project has potential for broader impacts at a societal-level via its peer-to-peer learning and leadership roles. This project is informed via intentional intervention strategies, such as exposure to STEM-focused content, interactions with the local area, STEM leaders, scholarship driven mentoring programs, and peer-to-peer opportunities with resource-poor setting populations in their schools. Importantly, Campeones de STEM project will also form the basis for a track 2 cross-institutional, community program to improve enrollment and retention rates in the STEM fields. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.