Expanding the Scientific Workforce in the Rural Regions of the Greater South Through Scholarships, Belonging, and Community Investment

通过奖学金、归属感和社区投资扩大大南方农村地区的科学劳动力

• 批准号: 2322521
• 负责人: Laura MacDonald
• 金额: $ 250万
• 依托单位: Hendrix College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2030-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322521&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Expanding; Scientific; Workforce; Rural; Regions

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 Hendrix College. Hendrix College is a liberal arts college situated in central Arkansas and primarily serves students in the rural regions of the South. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 28 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biology, biochemistry & molecular biology, chemistry, chemical physics, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Eligible first-year students will receive four-year scholarships to attend Hendrix College and pursue the STEM disciplines. In addition to receiving scholarships, students will engage closely with faculty mentors and each other in shared coursework, participate in a peer mentoring program designed to foster a sense of belonging and engagement in the sciences, receive internship and research opportunities, converse with professional scientists, and undertake a STEM-themed community project. In partnership with the Arkansas Innovation Hub, scholarship program participants will design and execute a project that addresses student-identified community challenges. Students will leverage their scientific skill sets and connections to the rural places of the South to consider how they can contribute to the innovation economy in their communities to bolster infrastructure and other scientific needs in the region. This project seeks to advance the understanding of strategies to retain talented scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians in areas of the country that most need their skill sets. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There are four specific aims: 1) Recruit, retain, and graduate 3 cohorts of low-income students with a baccalaureate degree in the scientific disciplines, 2) Evaluate the effectiveness of a science-based community project in helping scholars develop a professional scientific identity tied to civic engagement in a rural context, 3) Expand engagement of faculty with students from underserved backgrounds, and 4) Evaluate the effectiveness of a deep teaching professional development program emphasizing growth mindset in changing faculty mindsets and approaches about teaching and mentoring. The project seeks to expand what is known about teaching and mentoring approaches that best engage students from rural and low-income backgrounds in the scientific endeavor and determine how to retain them in their local communities following training. Prior research demonstrates that faculty are major determinants of whether students from limited economic backgrounds persist in the scientific disciplines, and those that take a growth mindset about students, positively impact persistence. Deep teaching professional development is an intensive, reflective approach that can lead to overall mindset changes, but little is known about its efficacy when combined with growth mindset training. Additionally, development of a scientific identity is critical to persistence in the scientific disciplines, but few studies have addressed how to develop an identity that is tied to civic engagement in a rural context. The project will investigate how a deep teaching professional development experience designed to enhance growth mindset in faculty affects their approaches to teaching, advising, and mentoring. It will also evaluate how having a faculty mentor trained in growth mindset in the first year of matriculation impacts feelings of belonging, self-efficacy, and resilience. Finally, it will investigate how participation in a science-based community project impacts identity, self-efficacy, civic engagement, and resilience. This project has the potential to advance understanding of how to support and retain talented trained individuals in the scientific workforce in the rural areas of the country that require innovative scientific solutions. This project will be evaluated using a mixed method approach that measures growth mindset, a sense of belonging, resilience, and civic engagement. Results of this project will be made available to diverse stakeholders at multiple levels of organization on the Hendrix campus, state-wide, and nationally. Specifically, results will be disseminated to Arkansas secondary and postsecondary educators and members of state legislature to raise important issues that impact the state. 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.

该项目将通过支持有经济需求的成绩优异的低收入学生在亨德里克斯学院（一所文理学院）的保留和毕业，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。该项目位于阿肯色州中部，主要为南部农村地区的学生提供服务，在为期 6 年的时间里，该项目将为 28 名正在攻读生物学、生物化学和分子学士学位的独特全日制学生提供奖学金。符合条件的一年级学生将获得生物学、化学、化学物理、计算机科学、数学和物理学的奖学金，以进入亨德里克斯学院学习 STEM 学科。彼此共享课程作业，参加旨在培养科学归属感和参与感的同伴指导计划，获得实习和研究机会，与专业科学家交谈，并与阿肯色州合作开展以 STEM 为主题的社区项目。创新中心，奖学金计划参与者将设计和执行一个项目，解决学生确定的社区挑战，学生将利用他们的科学技能和与南方农村地区的联系，考虑如何为社区的创新经济做出贡献，以加强基础设施和发展。该项目旨在促进对在该国最需要技能的领域保留有才华的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的策略的理解。该项目的总体目标是提高 STEM 学位。完成低收入、高成就有四个具体目标：1) 招募、留住并毕业 3 批拥有科学学科学士学位的低收入学生，2) 评估基于科学的社区项目在帮助方面的有效性。学者们在农村背景下发展与公民参与相关的专业科学身份，3）扩大教师与来自服务不足背景的学生的接触，以及4）评估深度教学专业发展计划的有效性，该计划强调成长心态该项目旨在扩大教师关于教学和指导的思维方式和方法，以最好地吸引来自农村和低收入背景的学生参与科学事业，并确定如何在培训后将他们留在当地社区。先前的研究表明，教师是经济背景有限的学生能否坚持科学学科的主要决定因素，而那些对学生采取成长心态的人，会对坚持产生积极影响。深度教学专业发展是一种密集的、反思性的方法，可以带来整体的进步。心态发生变化，但对其功效知之甚少此外，科学身份的发展对于坚持科学学科至关重要，但很少有研究探讨如何在农村背景下发展与公民参与相关的身份。旨在增强教师成长心态的深厚教学专业发展经验会影响他们的教学、建议和指导方法。 它还将评估在入学第一年接受成长心态培训的教师导师如何影响归属感和自我效能感。最后，它将研究如何实现。参与以科学为基础的社区项目会影响身份、自我效能、公民参与和复原力。该项目有可能增进人们对如何支持和留住该国农村地区科学劳动力中受过训练的人才的理解。该项目将使用混合方法进行评估，衡量成长心态、归属感、复原力和公民参与度。该项目的结果将提供给亨德里克斯组织多个层面的不同利益相关者。具体而言，结果将在校园、全州和全国范围内进行。向阿肯色州的中学和高等教育工作者以及州立法机构成员传播，以提出影响该州的重要问题。该项目由 NSF 科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金计划资助，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。这授予 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估反映使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得支持。