Enhanced Learning and Training Experiences to Support Talented, Low-Income STEM Students

Missouri State University, Springfield MO

Investigators

Abstract

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 Missouri State University. Over its 6-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 27 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degree in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics, Astronomy & Material Science. First-year students will receive up to four years of support through scholarships. In addition to providing substantial scholarships to reduce the participants’ need to work or their need to increase their debt, this project will implement high quality evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support their success, including proactive advising, tutoring, faculty and peer mentoring, participation at professional conferences, as well as increased access to research opportunities, internships, guest speakers from graduate schools and industry. The intellectual merit of this project is to advance knowledge by implementing, monitoring, and documenting targeted best practices on student success, with approaches that build on current research in the literature. This project will positively impact participating students, their families and their communities beyond graduation and it will serve as a successful model for meaningful, intentional, and sustainable support for STEM education, especially for financially challenged students. Ultimately, this project will help promote more equitable participation in STEM and will provide students with solid opportunities to transform the challenge of coming from a lower socio-economic status into a rewarding career, thus achieving social mobility, and contribute to our national competitiveness and security. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. This project will academically and financially support the success of students entering STEM disciplines who have unmet financial needs to promote successful graduation. The expected student outcomes of this project are increased retention and graduation rates of participants, improved grades in their introductory gateway courses, and increased number of them pursuing graduate school in a STEM discipline or joining the STEM workforce directly. The project will be evaluated using a mixed-methods approach by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data and conducting formative and summative assessments to discover factors that support or hinder success in this context. The main findings will be disseminated across campus, on the project’s website and in academic journals and professional conferences. 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.