Using Mentored Research Relationships to Empower Underserved Students and Improve Early Retention in STEM Majors

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该项目旨在通过建立和传播利用指导研究经验和关系的最佳实践来提高科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业前两年缺医少医和代表性不足的学生的保留率，从而为国家利益服务。应对重大的社会挑战，迫切需要一支具有多种视角和经验的多元化STEM劳动力队伍。该项目旨在授权和鼓励来自服务不足和代表性不足群体的学生留在STEM领域。该项目将建立一个研究社区，并为来自服务不足和代表性不足的群体的学生提供有偿的指导研究经验，包括第一代、低收入和少数民族/种族，这些群体在STEM领域一直被边缘化。入学前的暑期研究实习将把学者们融入校园社区，让他们快速进入自己的专业，并为他们提供指导经验，帮助他们从新生过渡到高年级学生和研究员。该项目为专业前两年的学生提供的创新研究体验预计将显著改善学生的体验，并鼓励他们发展自己的STEM身份。预期结果是一个可在其他大学实施的评估模型，其目标是减少STEM中有代表性和代表性不足的学生在一年级和二年级保留率方面存在的显著平等差距。新的研究成果有望提高对COVID-19对代表性不足群体学生的不成比例影响的理解，并为有效干预措施提供信息，以提高stem专业的留校率。预期的长期成果是扩大STEM劳动力的参与，以及更加包容和公平的科学。该项目的总体目标是通过使用指导的研究经验作为校园生活的切入点，并通过基础水平的STEM课程有目的地进步，从而增强STEM历史上边缘化群体的学者的能力。该项目将为来自第一代、低收入或种族/少数民族群体的学生创造一个有意的、持续的研究路径。该项目将支持超过36名学生学者参加各种活动，包括团队指导、参与研究关系和体验式学习、社区建设、专业和学术发展研讨会、反思和科学演讲，以及参加会议。参与者将通过与大学办公室的现有合作伙伴关系招募，这些大学办公室为对生命科学和相关STEM专业感兴趣的服务不足和代表性不足的群体的学生提供高中和大学预科课程。这两个项目组成部分将通过与外部评价人员的伙伴关系进行评估，使用频繁的调查和面谈，以确保组成部分达到总体目标。该项目还将通过深度访谈进行社会科学研究，跟踪学生在STEM专业的前两年，以研究项目干预的有效性。在此过程中，该项目将调查学生如何发展对研究过程、科学自我效能感、科学身份和归属感的理解。特别是，该项目将研究学生将他们的研究经历与社会代理意识联系起来的程度，以及这是否有助于未来的职业轨迹。项目活动的结果和制定的框架将在许多会议和期刊上传播，以确保更广泛的STEM推广。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing and disseminating best practices for using mentored research experiences and relationships to improve retention rates of underserved and underrepresented students in the first two years of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. A diverse STEM workforce that brings multiple perspectives and experiences is urgently needed to tackle grand societal challenges. The project aims to empower and encourage students from underserved and underrepresented groups to stay in STEM fields. The project will build a research community and provide paid mentored research experiences for students from underserved and underrepresented groups, including first-generation, low-income, and ethnic/racial minorities that have been historically marginalized in STEM. A research internship in the summer before matriculation will embed scholars in a community on campus, jumpstart them into their major, and provide them with mentored experiences that support their transition from incoming student to upper-division student and researcher. The project’s innovative research experiences for students in the first two years of their majors are anticipated to significantly improve the students' experiences and encourage them as they develop their STEM identities. The expected outcome is an evaluated model that can be implemented at other universities with the goal of decreasing significant equity gaps that exist in first- and second-year retention rates between represented and underrepresented students in STEM. Novel research outcomes are expected to improve the understanding of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on students from underrepresented groups and inform effective interventions for increased STEM-major retention. The anticipated long-term outcomes are broadened participation in the STEM workforce and more inclusive and equitable science. The overall goal of this project is to empower scholars from groups historically marginalized in STEM by using mentored research experiences as both entry point to campus life and purposeful progression through the foundational level STEM curriculum. The program will create an intentional, continuous research path for students from first-generation, low-income, or racial/ethnic minority groups. The project will support over 36 student scholars to participate in activities that include team-based mentoring, engagement in research relationships and experiential learning, community building, professional and academic development workshops, reflection and scientific presentations, and travel to conferences. Participants will be recruited using existing partnerships with university offices that support high school and college preparatory programming for students from underserved and underrepresented groups who are interested in life sciences and related STEM majors. The two project components will be assessed through partnership with an external evaluator using frequent surveys and interviews to ensure that the components meet overall objectives. The project will also conduct social science research using in-depth interviews that follow students through their first two years in STEM majors to study the effectiveness of project interventions. In doing so, the project will investigate how students develop an understanding of the research process, science self-efficacy, science identity, and a sense of belonging. In particular, the project will study the extent to which students tie their research experiences to a sense of social agency and whether that contributes to future career trajectories. Results and developed framework on project activities will be disseminated at numerous conferences and journals to ensure broader STEM outreach.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.