Improving Outcomes for At-Risk STEM First-Year Students through Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

该项目旨在通过为一年级学生实施基于课程的本科研究经验（CURES）来服务于国家利益，这些学生冒着四年多的风险毕业。自1970年以来，STEM的本科学位完成率一直在下降，威胁到美国过去60年来在科学和技术方面的历史优势。为了促进STEM兴趣，动机和坚持，该项目为有风险的学生提供了两种CURE干预措施。团结与种族平等委员会的第一项干预措施使用了循证教学要素。第二个CURE干预措施同时使用教学和STEM归属元素。这两种CURE干预措施都旨在提高GPA，对STEM专业的忠诚度，并通过毕业保留大学。在每个学期的CURE干预后，该项目将收集有关学生成功和对STEM能力的看法的数据，以独立评估每个教学和社会元素的重要性。该项目将确定两种类型的CURE中的成功策略，以帮助教师和部门建立适当的课程，并将其扩展到支持美国大学中处于风险中的STEM学生。本科研究经历（URE）对学生在STEM中的保留和坚持有积极影响，越来越多的控制良好的大规模纵向研究表明，URES可以吸引，保留，并最终提高本科生在STEM领域的成功率。然而，URES传统上作为研究学徒出现，学生作为教师研究小组的一部分工作，学徒制不容易扩展到为整个STEM感兴趣的学生群体服务。CURE为学生提供真实和早期的研究经验，相对于传统的学徒研究经验，吸引更多的学生。这个项目的目标是确定一个关键的差距，了解什么样的教学和社会因素将允许改进的可扩展性和可移植性。该项目将提供一个非常具体的问题的先进的理解：如何治愈成功地支持一年级的STEM学生谁是在四年内未能毕业的风险？到本项目结束时，超过500名本科生将从这一经验中受益。该项目将实施一系列在文献中确定的具有教学影响力的元素，包括体验式主动学习，真实评估，支架式指导和公民参与，所有这些都旨在增加学生的STEM意识。该项目的研究结果将有助于不断增长的知识库周围的CURE和他们可能实施的方式，以使学生和他们的机构的利益。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。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 project aims to serve the national interest by implementing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) for first-year students who run the risk of taking more than four years to graduate with a degree. Undergraduate degree completion in STEM has been decreasing since 1970, threatening the historical preeminence in science and technology that the United States has enjoyed for the last 60 years. To promote STEM interest, motivation, and persistence, this project provides two CURE interventions for at-risk students. The first CURE intervention uses evidence-based pedagogical elements. The second CURE intervention uses both pedagogical and STEM-belonging elements. Both CURE interventions aim to improve GPA, fidelity to a STEM major, and retention in college through graduation. After each semester-long CURE intervention, the project will gather data on student success and perceptions of STEM belongingness to assess the importance of each pedagogical and social element independently. This project will identify successful strategies within the two types of CUREs to assist instructors and departments as they build appropriate courses and scale them to support at-risk STEM students across US universities.Undergraduate research experiences (URE) positively impact student retention and persistence in STEM, and an increasing number of well-controlled, large-scale, and longitudinal studies indicate that UREs can attract, retain, and ultimately improve the success of undergraduates in STEM. However, UREs traditionally occur as research apprenticeships where students work as part of a faculty member’s research group, and apprenticeships do not easily scale to serve entire cohorts of STEM-interested students. CUREs provide authentic and early research experiences to students at scale, engaging more students relative to traditional apprenticed research experiences. The goal of this project is to identify a critical gap in understanding what pedagogical and social elements would allow improved scalability and transferability. This project will provide an advanced understanding of a very specific question: How do CURES successfully support first-year STEM students who are at risk of failing to graduate in four years? By the end of this project, over 500 undergraduate students will benefit from this experience. This project will implement a suite of elements identified in the literature as pedagogically impactful including experiential active learning, authentic assessment, scaffolded mentorship, and civic engagement, all of which are designed to increase a sense of STEM belongingness in students. The project’s findings will contribute to the growing body of knowledge around CUREs and the ways they may be implemented to the benefit of students and their institutions. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.