Enhancing Career Pathways of Talented Financially Disadvantaged Biology STEM Students Through Scholarships and Inclusive Transformative Academic Experiences

通过奖学金和包容性变革性学术经验，改善经济困难的生物学 STEM 学生的职业道路

• 批准号: 2221423
• 负责人: Mauricio Rodriguez-Lanetty
• 金额: $ 149.76万
• 依托单位: Florida International 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: 2022-07-01 至 2028-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221423&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Enhancing; Career; Pathways; Talented; Financially

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 Florida International University (FIU). FIU is a public Carnegie R1 Research and Hispanic Serving Institution. Over its six year duration, this project will fund scholarships to a total of 26 unique full-time students through two cohorts who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological Sciences. First-year students will receive up to eight semesters/ four academic years of scholarship support. To ensure successful student career pathways, the project will use a community of practice model (cohort) and a network of mentorship (senior peers, faculty, and academic advisors), and will integrate funding with evidence-based academic and co-curricular activities to promote student success and competitiveness in the workforce. Complementary implementations are designed to enhance self-belonging and science identity under an atmosphere of inclusiveness, translating into higher student engagement, academic performance, persistence, and degree completion. The scholars’ academic perspective, ability to comprehend scientific findings, and scientific communication skills, formalized by active engagement in journal clubs, lab courses for undergraduate research experiences, and research internships, will enrich their professional development and contribute to the FIU intellectual environment. This project aims to ensure that 26 historically marginalized students feel included and valued, and that they belong within their academic communities. In return, these scholars will be able to enter the workforce prepared to bring their diverse experiences and work in diverse teams with the goal of developing new solutions for global concerns related to biological degradation by climate change, biological restoration, pandemic outbreaks, and building the generation of science educators.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project specific aims are: (1) to implement an effective biology curriculum, the Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC), which features: emphasis in critical analyses of primary literature, integration of math skills into experimental biology, and the use of undergraduate learning assistants to enhance the academic and professional training of STEM scholars; (2) to enhance self-belonging and science identity of scholars under an atmosphere of inclusiveness by facilitating small cohort-based learning groups, mentorship networks, and research experiences; (3) to implement novel career development modules during the program’s early years, and generate longitudinal data determining the effect of these implementations on student success; and (4) to enhance core STEM competencies through micro-credential professional training. A mixed-methods approach will be used for the formative and summative evaluation of the project guided by a logic model. The evaluation team will conduct annual collections of quantitative and qualitative data on the quality, effectiveness, and impacts of project activities. Project findings will be disseminated to the STEM community at science education conferences, and prepared in manuscripts for publication in science education 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.

该项目将通过支持佛罗里达国际大学（FIU）的高分，低收入学生的保留和毕业，对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需求做出贡献。 FIU是一项公共卡内基R1研究和西班牙裔服务机构。在六年的持续时间内，该项目将通过两个正在攻读生物科学学士学位的同伙为总共26名独特的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得多达八个学期/四个学年的奖学金支持。为了确保成功的学生职业道路，该项目将使用实践模型（同伙）和心态（高级同伴，教职员工和学术顾问）的网络，并将将资金与基于证据的学术和课外活动的资金整合在一起，以促进学生的成功和补充实现，旨在在自我培训和科学范围内促进自学和科学的认同，从而增强了自我范围的范围，以培训且具有更高的学生的范围，从而使学业和学位学业融入了学业和学业，并融入了学业和学业。学者的学术观点，理解科学发现的能力和科学沟通技巧，通过积极参与期刊俱乐部，实验室课程的本科研究经验以及研究实习的正式形式，将丰富其专业发展，并为FIU知识环境做出贡献。该项目旨在确保有26名历史上边缘化的学生感到被纳入和重视，并属于他们的学术社区。作为回报，这些学者将能够进入准备带来各种经验和在潜水团队中工作的劳动力，目的是为通过气候变化，生物恢复，流行疫情而与生物学降解有关的全球关注解决新的解决方案，并建立了科学教育的产生。该项目的整体目标是使型高级良好的型号促进高高的良好型，而越来越多。该项目的具体目的是：（1）实施有效的生物学课程，课堂上的量化生物学（QBIC），其特征是：强调主要文献的批判性分析，将数学技能整合到实验生物学中，以及使用培训助手的使用，以增强STEM Shem Scholars的学术和专业培训； （2）通过支持基于小组的学习小组，Mentalship网络和研究经验来增强学者在包容性氛围下的自我倾向和科学认同； （3）在该计划的初期实施新颖的职业发展模块，并生成纵向数据，以确定这些实施对学生成功的影响； （4）通过微观的专业培训来增强核心STEM能力。混合方法方法将用于以逻辑模型为指导的项目的形成性和总结性评估。评估团队将对项目活动的质量，有效性和影响进行定量和定性数据的年度收集。项目发现将在科学教育会议上传播到STEM社区，并在手稿中准备在科学教育期刊上出版。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在STEM领域获得学位的经济需求的低收入学术才华的学生的数量。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，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来诚实地通过评估来诚实地支持。