Supporting Undergraduates from Community College to Excel and Succeed in STEM

支持社区学院的本科生在 STEM 领域脱颖而出并取得成功

• 批准号: 2130435
• 负责人: Sirena Hargrove-Leak
• 金额: $ 14.22万
• 依托单位: Elon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130435&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Supporting; Undergraduates; Community; College; Excel

This planning project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by exploring mechanisms to support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need who would transfer from the Early College Program operating at Alamance Community College (ACC) to Elon University. Over its 2-year duration, this project will build a pathway for students to transfer from an early college program at ACC to Elon, a four-year institution, to pursue bachelor’s degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and/or Physics. Key activities include building collaborative relationships between STEM faculty and administrators, as well as with the offices of admissions, institutional research, and financial aid at partner institutions to determine the potential number of eligible scholarship recipients and scholarship amounts. The project will also support a robust needs assessment to guide the development, execution, and evaluation of pilot programming for STEM students and faculty. Such pilot programming includes a faculty professional development workshop series on inclusive teaching, inclusive mentoring, and intercultural competence for faculty from each institution. In addition, a student development workshop series is envisioned to help students build skills and mindsets for academic success, by covering topics such as study groups, authentic goal-setting, seeking tutoring, resilience, self-efficacy, self-advocacy, growth mindset, and stereotype threat. The project aims to empower students to persist to earn undergraduate STEM degrees and enter STEM careers. Existing investments in engaged learning and student support infrastructure will be leveraged to support the project. This project has the potential to advance understanding of how strategic partnerships can leverage resources and programming to positively affect the recruitment, retention, graduation of high-achieving, low-income students who transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions.To increase STEM degree completion for high-achieving, low-income undergraduates with demonstrated financial need the project will pursue five goals. First is to build a pathway for high-achieving, low income students transferring from ACC to Elon by creating a leadership team of administrators and STEM faculty from the collaborating institutions. Second is to assess the academic, social, and/or cognitive needs of faculty and students as well as the financial and programming structures of the collaborating institutions. Third is to determine the potential number of eligible scholarship recipients and scholarship amounts. Fourth is to pilot and evaluate programming for STEM students and faculty that is informed by the needs assessment. Fifth is to develop a future Track 3 S-STEM proposal with robust evaluation and dissemination plans. Financial, academic, and mentoring support are demonstrated strategies to increase student persistence in STEM. Many 4-year colleges and universities have the resources and infrastructure to promote student retention and success. However, little is known about the efficacy of these resources for high-achieving, low-income students who transfer from community colleges to complete STEM degrees. The project will investigate if the perceived needs and expectations of STEM transfer students and STEM faculty align with those documented in the literature. It will also explore the intersections of STEM faculty and transfer student perceptions and expectations. The project has the potential to show that aligning the perceived needs and expectations of STEM faculty and transfer students can enhance student persistence in STEM. Evaluation methods include quantitative and qualitative surveys, focus groups, and asset mapping to characterize needs and expectations as well as quantitative data on students and faculty from collaborating institutions. Results of this project will be disseminated at STEM education conferences to advance understanding of factors that influence broadening participation in STEM fields and to encourage additional strategic partnerships that leverage resources between 4-year colleges and universities and community colleges. 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.

该规划项目将通过探索支持从早期学院转学的成绩优异、有经济需要的低收入学生保留和毕业的机制，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阿拉曼斯社区学院 (ACC) 至埃隆大学的项目在为期 2 年的时间内，将为学生从 ACC 的早期大学课程转到四年制大学埃隆大学攻读学士学位提供一条途径。在生物学、化学、计算机科学、工程、环境研究、数学和/或物理 主要活动包括在 STEM 教师和管理人员之间以及与合作机构的招生、机构研究和财务援助办公室之间建立合作关系。该项目还将支持强有力的需求评估，以指导 STEM 学生和教师试点项目的开发、执行和评估。此类试点项目包括关于以下方面的教师专业发展研讨会系列。包容性教学、包容性指导和此外，学生发展研讨会系列旨在帮助学生培养学术成功的技能和心态，涵盖学习小组、真实的目标设定、寻求辅导、适应力、自我效能等主题。 、自我倡导、成长心态和刻板印象威胁，该项目旨在帮助学生坚持获得 STEM 本科学位并进入 STEM 职业，将利用现有的参与式学习和学生支持基础设施投资来支持该项目。促进理解的潜力战略合作伙伴关系如何利用资源和规划，对从社区学院转学到四年制院校的高成就、低收入学生的招收、保留和毕业产生积极影响。 提高高成就、低收入学生的 STEM 学位完成率该项目将追求五个目标，首先是通过建立一个由合作机构的管理人员和 STEM 教师组成的领导团队，为成绩优异的低收入学生从 ACC 转学到 Elon 建立一条途径。评估学术，教师和学生的社会和/或认知需求以及合作机构的财务和计划结构第三是确定合格奖学金获得者的潜在数量和奖学金金额第四是试点和评估针对 STEM 学生和学生的计划。第五，制定未来的第三轨 S-STEM 提案，并提供强有力的评估和传播计划，以提高学生在 STEM 中的坚持程度。大学有资源和基础设施然而，人们对这些资源对于从社区大学转学到完成 STEM 学位的高成绩、低收入学生的有效性知之甚少。该项目将调查 STEM 转学的需求和期望。该项目还将探索 STEM 教师和转学生的看法和期望的交叉点，表明调整 STEM 教师和转学生的感知需求和期望可以增强学生和 STEM 教师的认知。学生对 STEM 的坚持程度评估方法包括该项目的结果将在 STEM 教育会议上传播，以加深对影响 STEM 广泛参与的因素的理解。该项目由 NSF 科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加低收入群体的数量。该计划还旨在改善未来 STEM 工作者的教育，并提供有关低收入学生的学业成功、转学、毕业和学业保留/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。