| NSF Org: |
RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 27, 2024 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 27, 2024 |
| Award Number: | 2325934 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Manda S. Adams
amadams@nsf.gov (703)292-4708 RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2024 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2027 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $105,435.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $105,435.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
501 20TH ST GREELEY CO US 80639-6900 (505)319-7355 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
501 20TH ST GREELEY CO US 80639-6900 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050, 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Persistence of students in undergraduate geoscience degree programs is a matter of critical importance at the national scale, with a shortfall of 118,000 geoscientists estimated by 2026, a problem exacerbated by over half (56%) of first-year STEM undergraduate students leaving before formally beginning their programs. Attrition impacts meteorology students and programs substantially. Despite this significant attrition rate, there is surprisingly no comprehensive dataset or movement within the atmospheric sciences discipline to quantify or improve it. A substantial portion of attrition within meteorology programs occurs during the freshman or sophomore years, when students are enrolled in calculus and physics courses and then transition to applying those skills in meteorology courses. Educational research in other STEM disciplines documents that highly influential components of students? experiences, and intention to persist, are tied to their feelings, emotions, and attitudes (the affective domain) - which can be modified by gaining a sense of purpose early on, being part of a community, and familiarization with the science and tools of the trade, all of which can be gained through immersive experiences in the discipline. This project aims to engage students most at risk for attrition through a post-freshman level week-long immersive experience: Student Training for Observational Research in Meteorology (STORM). Through the program, community-building, along with student-faculty rapport, will develop through individual and group experiences in designing and conducting experiments using meteorological instruments, and cohort building activities. Following STORM, participants and the remainder of their cohorts in their respective meteorology programs will participate in group activity each semester, to maintain their increased sense of community. The impact of this immersive experience on students? affective domain, as well as their performance and attitudes throughout the rest of their meteorological undergraduate education will be measured, to determine if this is an effective intervention for decreasing attrition in the atmospheric sciences.
This collaborative research between Central Michigan University and the University of Northern Colorado aims to purposefully build community within the rising sophomore cohort to bolster their peer and faculty connections and reduce the ?sophomore slump?, therefore increasing retention within meteorology programs. This will be done by offering a one-week field experience educational opportunity. The experience is designed to reduce barriers and broaden participation. The field experience and the choice of faculty involved has been done so to increase science identity among participants, especially those from underrepresented groups. The overarching objectives of enhancing student retention, students? sense of belonging and science identity and increasing self-efficacy through providing an extracurricular experience with discipline-specific skill building aligns with the aims of the GEOPATHs program. Analysis of the effectiveness of STORM will consist of mixed methods to identify and quantify effects of the immersive experience, including pre- and post-experience surveys that include Likert scale and open-ended self-reflection questions and individual interviews. Retention and academic performance data for participants will be analyzed in the context of institutional data for students in STEM majors to assess the impact of the field experience on these metrics. Individual student and group changes will be evaluated using a normalized change metric and descriptive statistics. Factors that contributed to observed changes will be explored through thematic analysis of qualitative student responses. All instruments developed for the educational research component of the study (i.e., selection rubric, surveys) along with meteorological data collected by students during field work will be publicly available for use by other undergraduate research experiences. This project is supported by the IUSE Program. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all 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.
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