RII-BEC: Enhancing the Transition of COVID-19 Disadvantaged Students from Undergraduate to Graduate Studies in STEM through Multi-Year Undergraduate Research Experiences

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。该项目在内华达州拉斯维加斯（UNLV）的大学旨在通过增加完成本科和研究生学位的学生人数，并追求科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域的职业生涯，这对美国的全球竞争力至关重要。该项目旨在减轻COVID-19疫情对STEM学科受影响最大的学生（即来自STEM历史上代表性不足的群体的学生）带来的挑战和障碍。研究人员将招募一批20名学生，他们将从本科学习到研究生院接受为期四年的指导。该项目将为这些学生提供入职，学术准备，咨询和教育规划，社交和网络机会以及财政支持，以提高学生的保留，进步和毕业率。该项目旨在利用这些干预措施来改善学生作为本科生过渡到研究生院和STEM职业的准备。在这个方向上，该项目将引入一个结构化的本科研究计划，提供跨越四年学习的学术准备和真实的指导研究参与。该项目将突出科学过程及其意义，并将研究该项目在建立学生STEM身份和归属感方面的有效性。项目活动将有助于在内华达州建立更加多样化和更具竞争力的STEM劳动力队伍。该项目的根本目标是采用最佳实践与创造性方法相结合，为学生提供进入研究生院并取得成功的知识基础和培训。为了支持这一目标，其他目标包括为学生提供：（1）改善学生在STEM领域的观点和归属感;（2）理解和体验研究和科学过程;（3）参与指导研究经验的机会。该项目将通过UNLV的本科生研究办公室，工程学院，科学学院，研究生院，咨询社区和STEM部门和教师之间的可持续内部合作伙伴关系实现这些目标，以提供指导，学术支持和社会支持，专业机会和资金。每个学生参与者将获得个性化以及队列支持，该项目将分四个阶段展开：年/阶段1 -保留，安置，咨询，指导和STEM身份形成;年/阶段2 -研究准备和自我效能建设;年/阶段3 -指导真实的研究经验;和年/阶段4 -研究生院准备。该项目的范围是调查和促进了解全球流行病对学生成功和过渡到STEM学科研究生院的影响。通过混合方法评估，该项目将开发和传播一个模型，以减轻COVID-19对代表性不足的本科生的不成比例的影响，同时提高学生的STEM身份和自我效能，并为他们进入研究生院和以后的STEM劳动力做好准备。该奖项由路易斯·斯托克斯少数民族参与联盟项目共同资助。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) aims to serve the national interest by increasing the number of students completing undergraduate and graduate degrees and pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, which is critical to United States global competitiveness. The project is designed to mitigate challenges and barriers imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on students who have been the most affected in STEM disciplines, namely students from groups who have been historically underrepresented in STEM. The investigators will engage a cohort of twenty students who will be guided for four years from undergraduate studies to graduate school. The project will provide these students with onboarding, academic preparation, advising and educational planning, social and networking opportunities, and financial support to increase student retention, progression, and graduation rates. The project aims to use these interventions to improve the students' preparation as undergraduates for transition to graduate school and STEM careers. In this direction, the project will introduce a structured undergraduate research program that provides academic preparation and authentic mentored research engagement that spans across four years of study. The project will highlight the scientific process and its significance, and will study the project's effectiveness on building students' STEM identity and sense of belonging. Project activities will help lead to a more diverse and competitive STEM workforce in Nevada.The underlying goal of the project is to employ best practices coupled with creative approaches to provide students with a knowledge base and training for entering and succeeding in graduate school. To support this goal, additional goals include providing students with: (1) an improved perspective and sense of belonging for students in STEM fields; (2) an understanding of, and experience with, research and the scientific process; and (3) opportunities to participate in mentored research experiences. The project will achieve these goals through sustainable intra-partnership collaborations among UNLV’s Office of Undergraduate Research, College of Engineering, College of Sciences, Graduate College, advising community, and STEM departments and faculty to provide mentoring, academic support and social support, professional opportunities, and funding. Each student participant will receive individualized as well as cohort support, and the project will unfold in four phases: Year/Phase 1 - retention, placement, advising, mentoring, and STEM identity formation; Year/Phase 2 - research readiness and self-efficacy building; Year/Phase 3 - mentored authentic research experiences; and Year/Phase 4 - graduate school readiness. The project’s scope is to investigate and advance understanding of the impacts of the global pandemic on student success and transition to graduate school in a STEM discipline. Through mixed-methods evaluation, the project will develop and disseminate a model on how to mitigate the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate students from underrepresented groups, while improving students' STEM identity and self-efficacy and preparing them for graduate school and, later, for the STEM workforce. The award is co-funded by the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program.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.