Engaging Community Colleges Students through a Residential, Pre-transfer Summer Research Program

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，这个轨道1项目旨在发展索诺马州立大学（SSU），一个四年制本科院校，和两个社区学院，门多西诺学院和圣罗莎初级学院之间的合作，让社区学院的学生在申请转学之前在SSU进行研究。转学生在进入4年制大学时可能会面临许多挑战，这可能会阻碍他们在STEM学科中取得成功。该项目每年将带来两批10名社区大学生，进行为期五周的住宅研究体验。参加者亦会参与专业及社交活动，以建立强大的队伍及提升学生的归属感。所有三所院校的数学、科学和工程成就（梅萨）项目之间的现有联系将使该项目能够招募不同的参与者，包括第一代学生和来自STEM历史上代表性不足的人群的学生。社区学院通常比四年制院校为更多样化的人群提供服务，但在全国范围内的许多机构，少数民族学生的转学率往往低于同龄人。本科研究是一种高影响力的实践，已被证明可以为学生提供丰富的，引人入胜的经验，可以推动学生保留和整体成功的更大公平。 该项目将通过探索为期5周的转移前研究经验（包括队列建设活动）如何影响社区大学生的归属感和STEM自我效能感来产生新的知识。该项目还将收集有关项目模式如何有助于学生后来决定转学和攻读4年制学位的数据。核心项目模型将传播给感兴趣的社区，作为2年制和4年制院校如何合作以提高学生参与STEM和坚持STEM的例子。项目评估将使用学生和教师的数据来评估项目组成部分的有效性和实施情况，同时检查项目模型的可扩展性，并着眼于未来的扩展。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建立HSI的能力。实现这些目标，鉴于HSI的多样性和背景，需要创新的方法，激励机构和社区转型，促进基础研究（i）参与学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM的参与，以及（iii）提高我们对如何建立机构能力的理解，更普遍地说，在HSI。HSI计划所支持的项目也将从这些方法中汲取经验，以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。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to develop a collaboration between Sonoma State University (SSU), a four-year primarily undergraduate institution, and two community colleges, Mendocino College and Santa Rosa Junior College, to engage community college students in research experiences at SSU prior to applying for transfer. Transfer students can face a number of challenges as they move to 4-year institutions, which can hinder success in STEM disciplines. The project will bring two cohorts of ten community college students each year for a five-week residential research experience. Participants will also take part in professional and social activities to build a strong cohort and promote students’ sense of belonging. Existing connections between the Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Achievement (MESA) programs at all three institutions will allow the project to recruit diverse participants, including first generation students and students from populations that have been historically underrepresented in STEM.Community colleges generally serve more diverse populations than 4-year institutions, yet at many institutions nationwide, students from minority populations often transfer at lower rates than their peers. Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice that has been shown to provide a rich, engaging experience for students that can drive greater equity in student retention and overall success. This project will generate new knowledge by exploring how a 5-week, pre-transfer research experience that includes cohort building activities impacts the sense of belonging and STEM self-efficacy of community college students. The project will also collect data on how the project model contributes to students’ later decision to transfer and pursue a 4-year degree. The core project model will be disseminated to communities of interest as an example of how 2- and 4-year institutions can collaborate to increase student engagement and persistence in STEM. Project evaluation will use student and faculty data to assess the effectiveness and implementation of project components while examining the scalability of the project model with an eye towards future expansion. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity, more generally, at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to 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.