2221177

Natural Science Transfer Scholars: Natural Science Foundations for Innovation in the Data-Driven Economy - This project will contribute to meeting 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 Michigan State University (MSU), Mott Community College (MCC; Flint, MI), and Washtenaw Community College (WCC; Ann Arbor, MI).

Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 50 unique full-time students at MCC and 75 unique full-time students at WCC who are pursuing associate's degrees in STEM fields with the intent to transfer to a four-year institution to complete a bachelor's degree in a STEM field. This project will also fund 32 unique full-time students at MSU who have transferred with 40 or more credits from a Michigan community college (CC) to complete a bachelor's degree in the biological, mathematical, or physical sciences.

First-year students at MCC and WCC will receive up to two years of scholarship support, and students transferring to MSU will receive up to three years of scholarship support. This project will promote the successful transfer of academically talented, low-income students from CCs to universities through graduation with STEM degrees by providing comprehensive academic and psychosocial support to participating students pre and post transfer. To support students in the transition from CC to the university, the project will also provide peer mentoring support and undergraduate research opportunities.

The project will also augment the training of low-income CC students in the natural sciences by incorporating opportunities to build capacity to apply the methods of data science to solve problems in their disciplinary area of study, enhancing their preparation to meet new challenges and innovate in the data-driven economy. Building a sustainable recruitment effort to attract low-income students to STEM degree programs through CCs is critical to meeting STEM workforce needs in Michigan. This work will continue to strengthen the existing partnership to create a clear and transparent pathway from MCC and WCC to a STEM bachelor's degree at MSU.

This project will also explore and establish the academic, administrative, and cultural structures extending across institutional boundaries that produce effective movement of students seeking to complete a bachelor's degree in STEM. The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need through the support of the multi-institution consortium. This consortium will expand efforts to recruit talented low-income students to the STEM Scholars Program at MCC and WCC and to baccalaureate programs in the natural sciences at MSU from CCs in Michigan and will integrate support structures at the three institutions.

The project also aims to enhance the capacity of students to innovate in the science and technology sector and increase their competitiveness for well-paying careers by offering opportunities to engage in data science and app development. One major goal of this project is to enhance the path for the transfer student population to a STEM bachelor's degree to build and diversify the STEM workforce. Research will be conducted to understand which supports and experiences have significant impacts on students' successful transfer and completion of a STEM bachelor's degree.

The embedded research component of this project will address the following research questions (RQs) that focus on student self-efficacy (SE) and science identity:
- RQ1: What kinds of structural supports at the CC impact a student's transfer SE (self-efficacy to transfer from a CC to a baccalaureate institution) and degree SE (self-efficacy to graduate with a bachelor's degree in STEM)?
- RQ2: What effect do the transitional supports at the baccalaureate-granting institution have on incoming transfer students' degree SE and science identity?
- RQ3: Once a transfer student has successfully transitioned into the university, what are the key experiences they leverage to maintain their degree SE and science identity?

Since SE and science identity change over time, the research will employ a mixed-methods approach using a novel experience sampling method (ESM) to measure SE in-the-moment partnered with daily journal reflections where students share more about specific events.

Anticipated project outcomes include increased numbers of low-income, academically-talented students transferring from MCC and WCC to 4-year institutions to pursue STEM bachelor's degrees and high STEM degree completion rates for students awarded scholarships upon transferring to MSU from a Michigan CC. Knowledge generated by the research component of this project will offer a roadmap to developing programmatic supports to build CC and transfer student SE and science identity for use by other institutions.

The Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (University of Michigan) will provide formative and summative evaluation of process and outcomes using qualitative and quantitative methods to assess: 1) program impact through comparison with matched control groups of transfer and native students, 2) student perceptions of data-driven science as a promising pathway, 3) progress toward benchmarks, and 4) post-graduation outcomes. External evaluation will also document project activities and participation, implementation strategies, and contextual factors and identify best practices.

Best practices and outcome data will be shared with S-STEM communities promoting transfer student success. Dissemination of research results to the broader STEM education research community will occur through research presentations and publications for communities such as the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and the Physics Education Research Community.

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.

Michigan State University

47.076 - Education and Human Resources

Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) [NSF]

East Lansing, Michigan 48824-5631 United States

Single Zip Code

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