Democratizing Access to the Emerging Interdisciplinary Tech Workforce for Low-Income Science Majors

使低收入科学专业的新兴跨学科技术劳动力民主化

• 批准号: 2130101
• 负责人: Jamie Payton
• 金额: $ 132.35万
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130101&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Democratizing; Access; Emerging; Interdisciplinary; Tech

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students in the College of Science and Technology (CST) at Temple University. In particular the project intends to provide 96 scholarships to support 32 unique scholarship recipients to support the completion of STEM degrees in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and earth and environmental sciences coupled with a minor in information science. The driving force behind the project team's efforts is to democratize access to economic opportunities in the technology-focused STEM workforce for high-achieving, low-income students. Lack of knowledge and skills in information sciences can be a barrier to workforce competitiveness and to economic mobility for low-income students. To overcome this barrier, the project leaders have identified intentional, multidisciplinary academic pathways that provide high-achieving, low-income students with the ability to focus on their chosen primary STEM major, such as biology or earth science, in combination with specialized study in information science. Such integrated academic pathways align with emerging needs for scientists to have more knowledge and skills in information science to collect, represent, analyze, and discover meaningful models by applying computational solutions to large data sets. The project hypothesizes that providing financial support to explore pathways for integrated study of STEM and information science, supported through cohort-based curricular and co-curricular activities, can ultimately lead to higher STEM degree attainment and workforce entry among low-income students. Through this project, researchers will develop and implement a model program that supports students from low-income backgrounds to complete academic degree programs with clearly identified academic pathways that promote degree attainment for undergraduate STEM majors and add value through integrated study of information science. The approach builds on evidence-based practices that have been shown to positively impact individual student outcomes; program elements are designed to emphasize connections across disciplines, integrate socially relevant applications of content knowledge, connect to professional practices, and develop identity and community through service-learning projects. Additionally, the program is also designed to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in computing, with program elements that implement evidence-based approaches for diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM education. The project will advance knowledge about the perceptions of STEM majors in choosing to pursue integrated academic pathways, as well as the impact on academic and workforce preparation for STEM students who complete such pathways. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.

该项目将通过支持天普大学科技学院 (CST) 中成绩优异的低收入学生的保留和毕业，满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。该项目特别打算提供 96 项奖学金，以支持 32 名独特的奖学金获得者完成化学、生物学、物理、数学、地球与环境科学以及辅修信息科学的 STEM 学位。项目团队努力的推动力是让以技术为中心的 STEM 劳动力中的高成就、低收入学生获得经济机会的民主化。缺乏信息科学知识和技能可能会成为劳动力竞争力和低收入学生经济流动性的障碍。为了克服这一障碍，项目负责人确定了有意的多学科学术途径，使成绩优异的低收入学生能够专注于他们选择的主要 STEM 专业，例如生物学或地球科学，并结合专业学习信息科学。这种综合的学术途径满足了科学家在信息科学方面拥有更多知识和技能的新兴需求，通过将计算解决方案应用于大型数据集来收集、表示、分析和发现有意义的模型。该项目假设，通过提供财政支持来探索 STEM 和信息科学的综合研究途径，并通过基于群体的课程和课外活动来支持，最终可以提高低收入学生的 STEM 学位和就业率。通过这个项目，研究人员将开发和实施一个示范项目，支持低收入背景的学生完成学术学位课程，并提供明确的学术途径，促进本科 STEM 专业的学位获得，并通过信息科学的综合研究增加价值。该方法建立在基于证据的实践之上，这些实践已被证明可以对个别学生的成绩产生积极影响；课程要素旨在强调跨学科的联系，整合内容知识的社会相关应用，与专业实践相联系，并通过服务学习项目发展身份和社区。此外，该计划还旨在扩大代表性不足的群体在计算领域的参与，其计划要素是在 STEM 教育中实施基于证据的多样性、公平性和包容性方法。该项目将增进人们对 STEM 专业学生选择综合学术途径的看法，以及对完成此类途径的 STEM 学生的学术和劳动力准备的影响的了解。该项目由 NSF 的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加具有经济需求且获得 STEM 领域学位的低收入学术才华学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育，并产生有关低收入学生的学业成功、保留、转学、毕业以及学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得支持通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。