Using Mentored Research Relationships to Empower Underserved Students and Improve Early Retention in STEM Majors

利用指导性研究关系为服务不足的学生提供支持并提高 STEM 专业的早期保留率

• 批准号: 2225837
• 负责人: Kristi Montooth
• 金额: $ 99.91万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 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: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225837&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; Mentored; Research; Relationships; Empower

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing and disseminating best practices for using mentored research experiences and relationships to improve retention rates of underserved and underrepresented students in the first two years of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. A diverse STEM workforce that brings multiple perspectives and experiences is urgently needed to tackle grand societal challenges. The project aims to empower and encourage students from underserved and underrepresented groups to stay in STEM fields. The project will build a research community and provide paid mentored research experiences for students from underserved and underrepresented groups, including first-generation, low-income, and ethnic/racial minorities that have been historically marginalized in STEM. A research internship in the summer before matriculation will embed scholars in a community on campus, jumpstart them into their major, and provide them with mentored experiences that support their transition from incoming student to upper-division student and researcher. The project’s innovative research experiences for students in the first two years of their majors are anticipated to significantly improve the students' experiences and encourage them as they develop their STEM identities. The expected outcome is an evaluated model that can be implemented at other universities with the goal of decreasing significant equity gaps that exist in first- and second-year retention rates between represented and underrepresented students in STEM. Novel research outcomes are expected to improve the understanding of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on students from underrepresented groups and inform effective interventions for increased STEM-major retention. The anticipated long-term outcomes are broadened participation in the STEM workforce and more inclusive and equitable science. The overall goal of this project is to empower scholars from groups historically marginalized in STEM by using mentored research experiences as both entry point to campus life and purposeful progression through the foundational level STEM curriculum. The program will create an intentional, continuous research path for students from first-generation, low-income, or racial/ethnic minority groups. The project will support over 36 student scholars to participate in activities that include team-based mentoring, engagement in research relationships and experiential learning, community building, professional and academic development workshops, reflection and scientific presentations, and travel to conferences. Participants will be recruited using existing partnerships with university offices that support high school and college preparatory programming for students from underserved and underrepresented groups who are interested in life sciences and related STEM majors. The two project components will be assessed through partnership with an external evaluator using frequent surveys and interviews to ensure that the components meet overall objectives. The project will also conduct social science research using in-depth interviews that follow students through their first two years in STEM majors to study the effectiveness of project interventions. In doing so, the project will investigate how students develop an understanding of the research process, science self-efficacy, science identity, and a sense of belonging. In particular, the project will study the extent to which students tie their research experiences to a sense of social agency and whether that contributes to future career trajectories. Results and developed framework on project activities will be disseminated at numerous conferences and journals to ensure broader STEM outreach.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.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》（公法117-2）全部或部分资助的。该项目旨在通过在科学，技术，技术，工程和数学（STEM）专业的头两年中建立和传播最佳实践来提高服务经验和关系不足的学生的保留率来提高服务不足和代表性不足的学生的保留率，以提高服务不足和代表性不足的学生的保留率来满足国家利益。迫切需要带来多种观点和经验的潜水员STEM劳动力，以应对巨大的社会挑战。该项目旨在增强和鼓励来自服务不足和代表性不足的团体的学生留在STEM领域。该项目将建立一个研究社区，并为服务不足和代表性不足的群体的学生提供有偿的研究经验，包括第一代，低收入和种族/种族/种族/种族/种族/种族/种族少数民族，这些群体历史上在STEM中被边缘化。在矩阵之前的夏天，一项研究实习将在校园的一个社区中嵌入学者，将他们插入他们的专业，并为他们提供周到的经验，以支持他们从即将到来的学生到上级学生和研究人员的过渡。该项目在专业的头两年中为学生提供的创新研究经验预计将显着改善学生的经验，并鼓励他们在发展自己的STEM身份时。预期的结果是一个经过评估的模型，可以在其他大学实施，目的是减少在STEM中代表和代表性不足的学生之间的第一年和二年级保留率中存在的显着股权差距。预计新的研究结果将提高对Covid-19对代表性不足的学生的不成比例影响的理解，并为有效的干预措施提供了增加的干预措施，从而增加了茎毛的保留率。预期的长期结果是扩大了对STEM劳动力和更具包容性和公平科学的参与。该项目的总体目标是通过将心理研究经验作为校园生活的入口和通过基础级STEM课程有目的的进步来赋予STEM中历史上边缘化的群体的学者。该计划将为来自第一代，低收入或种族/族裔少数群体的学生创造故意，连续的研究途径。该项目将支持36多名学生学者参加，包括基于团队的心理，参与研究关系和专家学习，社区建设，专业和学术发展研讨会，反思和科学演讲以及参加会议的活动。将使用与大学办公室的现有合作伙伴关系来招募参与者，这些伙伴关系支持高中和大学准备节目，该计划为来自服务不足和代表性不足的团体的学生和相关STEM专业的学生感兴趣。这两个项目组件将通过与经常调查和访谈的外部评估合作来评估，以确保组件符合整体目标。该项目还将使用深入的访谈进行社会科学研究，这些访谈跟随学生在STEM专业的头两年进行研究，以研究项目干预的有效性。通过这样做，该项目将调查学生如何对研究过程，科学自我效能，科学认同和归属感的理解发展。特别是，该项目将研究学生将研究经验与社会机构感联系在一起的程度，以及这是否有助于未来的职业轨迹。结果和开发的项目活动框架将在众多会议和期刊上传播，以确保更广泛的STEM推广。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并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获得支持。