Chesapeake Scholars in the Physical Sciences

切萨皮克物理科学学者

• 批准号: 2221369
• 负责人: Eun-Suk Seo
• 金额: $ 149.26万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 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: 2022-12-01 至 2027-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Chesapeake; Scholars; Physical; Sciences

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Maryland, College Park. Over its five year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique undergraduate students who are pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in six physical science disciplines: Astronomy, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics. Incoming first year students will receive four years of scholarship support, while transfer students will receive up to three years of support. The project will also provide three years of support for students who declare a physical science major during their freshman year. Scholar participants in the program will be supported by both a faculty mentoring program and a peer mentoring program. Students will have access to research experiences in university lab, and will have the opportunity to present the results of their research at professional conferences. Due to the University of Maryland’s location in the national capital region, scholars will have the opportunity to visit national labs and other federal science facilities. Other student support services are available, including career advising and preparation for graduate school. The project leadership will study how well the programmatic activities engender a sense of belonging towards the disciplines and the Chesapeake Scholars cohort, and whether the program increases engagement in the academic programs and decreases attrition. The project will support an increase in the domestically trained STEM workforce in the region and nationally. It will also seek to transform the educational experience of undergraduates in the university more generally. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The four specific goals of the program are to: (1) increase retention among academically talented bachelor’s degree candidates who matriculate at the university with a declared physical science major; (2) increase retention among academically talented students who declare a physical science major during or after their freshman year; (3) increase retention among academically talented transfer students who declare a physical science major; and (4) increase students’ self-reported sense of belonging to their disciplines and their cohort. Two prior S-STEM programs at the University of Maryland have demonstrated the successful retention of academically talented low-income students studying engineering and physics. The Chesapeake Scholars program will investigate whether this retention success can be extended to a larger cohort of students studying a wider range of physical science disciplines. More generally, the project will seek to advance the understanding of student persistence in undergraduate STEM education. Using typical four-year plans for each physical science degree, the project leadership has identified key course sequences (in math, physics, and chemistry) within which to track retention from semester-to-semester. Student retention rates from semester to semester will be tracked in these course sequences with flow diagrams, specifically for the Chesapeake Scholars and for the general student body. Student retention in the physical science degree programs will be compared in relation to the one-year and two-year retention goals, including retention in-major, in the physical sciences, and within the college broadly. The results of internal and external evaluations will be disseminated so that scholars and the public have access to the findings. 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.

该项目将通过支持马里兰大学帕克分校的高成就、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的需求。该项目将在五年内提供奖学金。资助 28 名正在攻读六个物理科学学科理学学士学位的独特本科生：天文学、大气和海洋科学、生物化学、化学、地质学和物理学。即将入学的一年级学生将获得四年的奖学金支持，而转学生将获得长达三年的支持，该项目还将为在大一期间选择物理科学专业的学生提供三年的支持，该项目的学者参与者将获得教师指导计划和项目的支持。学生将有机会在大学实验室获得研究经验，并有机会在专业会议上展示他们的研究成果，因为马里兰大学位于国家首都地区。参观国家实验室和其他联邦科学设施。提供服务，包括职业咨询和研究生院准备，项目领导将研究项目活动如何很好地产生对学科和切萨皮克学者群体的归属感，以及该项目是否增加了学术项目的参与度并减少了人员流失。该项目将支持增加该地区和全国范围内受过培训的 STEM 劳动力，还将寻求更广泛地改变大学本科生的教育体验。该项目的总体目标是提高 STEM 学位的完成率。该计划的四个具体目标是：（1）提高被大学录取的物理科学专业的有学术才华的学士学位候选人的保留率； (3) 提高申报物理科学专业的学术才华转学生的保留率；(4) 提高学生自我报告的对其学科和群体的归属感。马里兰大学之前的 S-STEM 项目已经证明，能够成功保留学习工程学和物理学的有学术才华的低收入学生。切萨皮克学者计划将研究这种保留成功是否可以扩展到更多学习更广泛领域的学生。更一般地说，该项目将寻求促进学生对本科 STEM 教育坚持的理解，项目领导层使用每个物理科学学位的典型四年计划，确定了关键课程序列（数学、物理、和化学），其中跟踪保留各个学期的学生保留率将在这些课程序列中用流程图进行跟踪，特别是针对切萨皮克学者和一般学生团体的物理科学学位课程的学生保留率。一年和两年的保留目标，包括专业、物理科学和学院内部的保留目标。内部和外部评估的结果将被传播，以便学者和公众能够获得研究结果。该项目已获资助美国国家科学基金会 (NSF) 的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目旨在增加获得 STEM 领域学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量，该项目还旨在改善未来 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、毕业和学术/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。