The Pee Dee Scholars: Forging STEM Transfer Success in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina

皮迪学者：在南卡罗来纳州皮迪地区打造 STEM 转移成功

• 批准号: 2130351
• 负责人: Joseph Flaherty
• 金额: $ 134.97万
• 依托单位: Coker College
• 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: 2021-10-15 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130351&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Pee; Dee; Scholars; Forging; STEM

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 with demonstrated financial need at Coker University (CU), a four-year private liberal arts institution, and Florence Darlington Technical College (FDTC), a two-year technical college. Over a six-year duration, this project plans to fund scholarships to 48 full-time students pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in biology, computer science, mathematics, and chemistry at CU or an associate’s degree in general science at FDTC. First-year students will receive up to four-years of scholarship support at CU and associate’s and transfer students will receive up to two-year scholarships at FDTC and CU, respectively. The first two years of the project will feature collaborative, cross-institutional, and evidence-based activities including a three-tiered faculty/peer mentoring model, intrusive advising, first-year experience course, and a STEM symposia series. In addition, to boost science identity, community, STEM career awareness, persistence in STEM, retention, and transfer student capital (TSC) in FDTC-based scholars, the project team intends to create a cross-institutional living learning community. The final two years will further develop scholars’ scientific identity and belonging, promote career and research experiences, and prepare scholars for careers or graduate school in STEM through internships with industry, undergraduate research opportunities, and student ePortfolios. This project proposes a cross-institutional and scalable approach to improving retention, graduation, and transfer rates of low-income students who are underrepresented in STEM, including underrepresented minorities (URMs), and first generation in their families to attend college. To increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, the project will pursue several specific aims. First is increased enrollment of domestic, low-income, academically-talented students in both CU and FDTC STEM majors of focus. Second is adaptation and implementation of evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to increase retention, persistence, transfer, and graduation rates for Pee Dee scholars. And third is increased numbers of low-income, academically talented STEM graduates from the Pee Dee region who enter the STEM workforce or seek advanced STEM degrees after graduation. Despite the wealth of data showing the challenges encountered by low-income community college students who seek to transfer to four-year colleges and earn bachelor’s degrees, there remains a dearth of information related to the cross-institutional strategies to support low-income students in the transfer process and completion of a four-year degree. Very few studies have sought to estimate the effects of cross-institutional partnerships between a two- and a four-year college on transfer student bachelor completion rates. This project will advance understanding of the main factors that influence students’ self-efficacy and agency to complete a four-year degree in STEM by examining the existing barriers for low-income community college students. In particular, the project leadership will be guided by a central research question: "What factors contribute to success of low-income, transfer students in STEM?" The project investigators hypothesize that the combination of enhanced financial support coupled with evidence-based practices and rich cross-institutional engagement supported by the TSC framework will increase student success including persistence in STEM majors and overall retention in college. Furthermore, these practices are expected to lead to greater rates of matriculation into four-year and/or graduate and professional programs followed by employment in a STEM career. This project will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data from institutional data, faculty, mentor, and student surveys and focus groups, pre- and post-tests, and graduation and placement data. Results of this project will be made available utilizing the "Yes We Must" Coalition, the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center (SCATE) Center of Excellence, and through presentations at national and regional conferences, and intended publications through peer-reviewed journals. 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.

该项目将通过支持高成就，低收入学生在Coker University（CU）（CU），四年制的私立自由艺术机构以及佛罗伦萨达令顿技术学院（FDTC）（一所两年制的技术学院）的高位，低收入学生（CU）的保留和毕业，以促进受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术的国家需求。在六年的时间内，该项目计划为攻读CU或FDTC的普通科学副学士学位的48名全日制学生提供科学资助。一年级的学生将在CU获得最多四年的奖学金支持，而转学生和转学学生将分别在FDTC和CU获得最多两年的奖学金。该项目的前两年将以合作，跨机构和循证活动为特色，包括三层教师/同伴心理模型，侵入性咨询，第一年的经验课程和STEM专题讨论会系列。此外，为了促进基于FDTC的学者的STEM，STEM和转移学生资本（TSC）的持续性，STEM的持久性，STEM的职业意识，持久性，该项目团队打算建立跨机构生活学习社区。最后两年将进一步发展学者的科学身份和归属，促进职业和研究经验，并通过与行业，本科研究机会和学生ePortfolios的实习来为STEM的职业或研究生院做准备。该项目提出了一种跨机构和可扩展的方法，可改善在STEM中人数不足的低收入学生的保留，毕业和转移率，包括代表性不足的少数族裔（URMS）以及家庭中的第一代人就读大学。为了提高低收入，高成就的大学生的茎学位，并表现出了经济需求，该项目将追求一些具体的目标。首先是增加CU和FDTC STEM专业的国内，低收入，具有学术意义的学生的入学率。其次是基于证据的课程和课外活动的适应和实施，以提高小便研究学者的保留，持久性，转移和毕业率。第三是来自小便区域的低收入，学术才华的STEM毕业生，他们进入STEM劳动力或毕业后寻求高级STEM学位。尽管有大量的数据表明，低收入社区大学生遇到的挑战，他们试图转学到四年制大学并获得学士学位，但仍存在与跨机构策略有关的信息死亡，以支持在转会过程中支持低收入学生的跨机构策略。很少有研究试图估算两年学院和四年制大学之间跨机构合作伙伴关系对转学学生学士完成率的影响。该项目将通过检查低收入社区大学生的现有障碍来了解影响学生自我有效和代理的主要因素，以完成四年制的STEM学位。特别是，项目领导层将以一个中心研究问题为指导：“哪些因素有助于低收入，转移STEM的学生的成功？”该项目调查人员假设，增强的财政支持以及由TSC框架支持的良好的循证实践和丰富的跨机构参与的结合将增加学生的成功，包括STEM专业的持久性和大学的整体保留。此外，预计这些实践将使矩阵的比率更高，并在STEM职业生涯中就业，然后是/或研究生和专业计划。该项目将使用混合方法的方法来评估来自机构数据，教师，精神和学生调查以及焦点小组，预测试和毕业和安置数据的定量和定性数据。该项目的结果将使用“是的我们必须”联盟，南卡罗来纳州高级技术教育中心（Scate）卓越中心以及通过在国家和地区会议上的演讲以及通过同行评审的期刊进行的出版物提供。该项目由NSF在科学，技术，工程和数学计划方面的奖学金提供资金，该计划旨在增加具有证明经济需求的低收入学术才华的学生人数，他们在STEM领域获得了学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工人的教育，并为低收入学生的学术成功，保留，转移，毕业以及学术/职业途径提供知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来评估的珍贵的支​​持。