S-STEM: Addressing Disparities in STEM Educational Access and Outcomes among Low-Income Students

S-STEM：解决低收入学生在 STEM 教育机会和成果方面的差异

• 批准号: 2322771
• 负责人: Angel Marti
• 金额: $ 250万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 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: 2024-03-01 至 2030-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322771&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; Addressing; Disparities; Educational; Access

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 Rice University. Rice University is a small, private, four-year institution of higher education located in Houston, Texas, a city of approximately 2.4 million people that stands as the most diverse city in the United States. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 53 unique, full-time students every year who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering disciplines. This project will facilitate the transition of a group of academically talent low-income students from the time they are admitted to college to the start of their major core courses—and then throughout the remainder of their undergraduate programs. The project will begin in the summer and will combine a six-week, immersive bridge program that will cover the most challenging topics students will face in first-year mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science courses with numerous interventions: individualized professional advisors’ coaching throughout the students’ time at Rice, cohort-building activities, and other interventions designed to fuel persistence and remove barriers for success. Moreover, the project will sponsor summer activities such as opportunities to participate in state-of-the-art research, internships, and summer courses. This S-STEM grant will support academically talented low-income students in science and engineering, strengthening the pipeline of professionals across all STEM fields, while shedding light on the significance of critical events in the formation of STEM identity and persistence to a degree completion in STEM, as well as the effectiveness of the project in addressing student needs. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The central hypothesis is that by using a series of carefully planned and integrated interventions, it will be possible to remove the barriers that lead to attrition in STEM and, thereby, advance persistence and academic success. The overall goal will be accomplished by pursuing the following objectives: 1) mitigate disparities in access to educational opportunities by helping students acquire core STEM content knowledge and develop college-ready study habits and skills; 2) provide an intentionally designed cohort experience that fosters belongingness and cultivates students’ identity as members of the Rice science and engineering communities; 3) coach and mentor students throughout their college studies to build social capital and navigate or remove barriers to persistence; and, 4) provide summer academic and scholarly opportunities for sophomore and junior students. Critical events (called shocks) cause individual students to re-evaluate their educational arrangements, in part because shocks send messages about identity and expected futures. To understand the types of shocks experienced by students, the perceptions of their severity, and whether they differ by student socioeconomic status, a series of qualitative interviews will be performed. In addition, quantitative studies of student identity upon matriculation (i.e., STEM and status identity), shocks experienced during their first two years of study, and an assessment of student outcomes will be performed. The project will advance understanding of the types of critical events that students are experiencing, perceptions of the severity of those critical events, whether these perceptions differ by student status, and the effectiveness of the project in mitigating the adverse effects of these events. The success of the project will be assessed by formative and summative external evaluation, and the results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and papers presented at academic conferences. The project will also host a half-day workshop every summer to share effective strategies with other universities and community colleges across Texas. 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，通过支持赖斯大学的高分，低收入学生的保留和毕业。莱斯大学是位于德克萨斯州休斯敦的一个小型私人高等教育机构，这座城市约有240万人是美国最多样化的城市。在其6年的持续时间内，该项目将为每年攻读科学和工程学科学士学位的53名独特全日制学生提供奖学金。该项目将促进一群学术人才低收入学生的过渡，从他们被大学录取到他们的主要核心课程开始，然后在其余的本科课程中。该项目将在夏季开始，并将结合一项为期六周的沉浸式桥梁计划，该计划将涵盖学生在第一年数学，物理，化学和计算机科学课程中将面临的最挑战的主题与许多干预措施：个性化的专业顾问在赖斯，稻米建设活动中的整个学生的指导，以及为其他启动启发式启动启动和驱动成功的措施。此外，该项目将赞助夏季活动，例如参加最先进的研究，介绍和夏季课程的机会。这项S-STEM赠款将支持在学术治疗的科学和工程领域接受学术治疗的低收入学生，增强所有STEM领域的专业人员管道，同时阐明了关键事件在STEM身份和持久性形成STEM的重要性和持久性方面的重要性，以及该项目在满足学生需求方面的有效性。该项目的总体目标是增加茎学位的完成，以证明财务需求，使低收入，高成就的大学生的本科生完成。中心假设是，通过使用一系列精心计划和综合的干预措施，可以消除导致STEM损耗的障碍，从而提高持久性和学术成就。总体目标将通过追求以下对象来实现：1）通过帮助学生获取核心STEM内容知识并培养适合大学就业的学习习惯和技能来减轻分配以获得教育机会； 2）提供有意设计的队列经验，该经验培养归属感并培养学生作为水稻科学和工程社区成员的身份； 3）在整个大学学习期间，教练和精神学生建立社会资本，导航或消除持久性的障碍； ，以及4）为大二和初中学生提供夏季学术和科学机会。关键事件（称为冲击）导致单个学生重新评估其教育安排，部分原因是震惊发送了有关身份和预期未来的信息。要了解学生经历的冲击类型，对他们严重程度的看法以及他们是否因学生社会经济地位而有所不同，将进行一系列定性的访谈。此外，将对学生身份的定量研究（即STEM和状态身份），在研究的头两年中经历的冲击以及对学生成绩的评估。该项目将进一步了解学生所经历的关键事件类型，对这些关键事件严重性的看法，这些看法是否因学生身份而有所不同，以及该项目在减轻这些事件的不利影响方面的有效性。该项目的成功将通过形成性和总结性的外部评估来评估，结果将通过学术会议上发表的同行评审出版物和论文进行传播。该项目还将在每年夏天举办半天的研讨会，以与德克萨斯州的其他大学和社区大学共享有效的策略。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证明经济需求的低收入学术才华的学生人数，他们在STEM领域获得了学位。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，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来评估的珍贵的支​​持。