Increasing the Persistence of STEM Majors through Nanoscience-Themed Activities that Support Academic, Professional, and Personal Engagement and Development

This project will contribute to the national need for skilled scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students at West Chester University, a comprehensive, primarily undergraduate institution. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide scholarships to 18 full-time students who are pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Biology, Chemistry, Forensic and Toxicological Chemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics, or Physics.

Scholars will enter in two annual cohorts of nine students and receive up to four years of scholarship support. In addition to the scholarships, the project will provide Scholars with a comprehensive suite of evidence-based academic, professional, and personal engagement and development activities that are embedded within an overarching nanoscience theme.

The activities will span Scholars’ entire academic career and include a STEM-oriented summer camp, Orientation and Learning Community activities, a STEM-themed journal club, opportunities for nanoscience research summer experiences and industry internships, and career planning and graduate fellowship grant-writing workshops.

The overall goal of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specific aims include: (1) To implement a four-year program of evidence-based, integrated academic, professional, and personal experiences; (2) to contribute to an understanding of the impact of student cohorts and other psychological and social factors on student success and retention and graduation in STEM; and (3) to broaden the participation of low-income high-achieving STEM students in Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics.

Drawing on a phenomenological approach, the mixed methods research and development effort will examine the lived experience of Scholar cohorts to document and explore how growth mindset, desirable difficulties/productive struggles, and metacognitive practices during learning impact student success, retention, and graduation with a STEM degree. Across individuals, time, and methods/measures, the project’s triangulation strategies will support the development/collection of data, the use of multiple data sources and methods/measures, analyses of the data to include addressing convergence, inconsistency, and contradiction, and the establishment of the trustworthiness, credibility, and validity of the study findings.

The project has the potential to advance knowledge about activities and factors that differentially influence student success, retention, and graduation in STEM. A mixed methods formative and summative evaluation will inform project improvement, as well as document and assess project processes and student outcomes. Results from the project will be made available through the project website, publications, and presentations at education-oriented conferences and venues.

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.