The MOSAIC (Meeting Our Scientific and Interdisciplinary Challenges) project is offering a rich diversity of initiatives and interdisciplinary learning opportunities for cohorts of academically-talented, financially-needy students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science or Mathematics. The project is engaging scholarship recipients in interdisciplinary experiences to develop an understanding that they are part of a larger technological mosaic; and it reaches out to pre-college students to increase enrollment and retention, particularly of under-represented minorities, women, and students with disabilities, to degree achievement. The intellectual merit of MOSAIC is based on a strong academic program and builds on the successful organization and outcomes of an earlier grant under the Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarships program. Active student recruitment is leading to broader impacts including: a middle school outreach program aimed at reversing the tendency of underrepresented groups to turn away from mathematics and the sciences; encouraging more students to choose teaching and research in the S-STEM disciplines; disseminating interdisciplinary course materials developed for these students; seeking corporate funding to make the MOSAIC project self-sustaining.
) program. Just as an artistic mosaic is composed of a variety of diverse elements, the goal of our MOSAIC program was to recruit and retain more STEM majors by providing scholarships, mentoring and a variety of initiatives and interdisciplinary learning opportunities to students majoring in the STEM disciplines. In addition to scholarships, the MOSAIC program was designed to achieve four objectives: 1) To provide a greater variety of educational opportunities by engaging a cohort of students in interdisciplinary experiences to develop an understanding that they are part of a larger technological mosaic; 2) To reach out to pre-college students to increase the enrollment and retention, particularly of under-represented minorities, women, and students with disabilities, to degree achievement; 3) To expand our student support programs, including mentoring; 4) To increase the number of well-educated and skilled employees in technical areas of national need, now and in the future, in an attempt to make this program self-sustaining. The intellectual merit of the MOSAIC program was based on a strong academic program at St. Joseph’s College and was built on the successful organization and outcomes of a prior CSEMS grant. Active student recruitment, academic guidance and mentoring were designed to result in a broader impact including: Increasing the base of students qualified to enter STEM disciplines through a high school and middle school outreach program aimed at reversing the tendency of underrepresented groups to turn away from mathematics and the sciences; Encouraging more students to choose teaching and research in the STEM disciplines; Disseminating interdisciplinary course materials developed for these students; Seeking corporate funding to make our MOSAIC program self-staining; Encouraging qualified students to enter STEM disciplines by providing scholarships and improved support services. Most of these goals were achieved or even greatly exceeded. FINDINGS AND OUTCOMES MOSAIC Scholarship Recipients and Demographics Our original proposal estimated that 28 academically-talented, financially-needy students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science or Mathematics would be selected and awarded scholarships and support services annually. We discovered that there were more potential STEM majors with greater financial need than we had anticipated. To encourage the maximum number of students to pursue a STEM major, we awarded scholarships as a percentage of their financial need. In doing so we were able to recruit, encourage, mentor and support a total of 101 students, far exceeding our original estimate of 30. These MOSAIC scholars were 71% female and 36% represented minorities, compared with a 25% minority student population college-wide. The MOSAIC retention rate for the STEM majors increased from 72% to 87%, primarily resulting from the faculty mentoring program. Forty STEM majors have graduated; 32 MOSAIC scholars, chosen to replace graduating seniors, are still actively enrolled in as STEM majors and will graduate within the next two years. Therefore, the MOSAIC program will add 72 well prepared STEM graduates to the work force. We exceeded our goal to "increase the number of well-educated and skilled employees in technical areas of national need" as demonstrated by the increased enrollment in majors in mathematics (27%) and the sciences (biology 86% and chemistry 56%). New degree programs were established, including a Master of Arts in Mathematics Education and a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology. As an outcome of the MOSAIC interdisciplinary activities, there was a major revision of the Core Curriculum. The focus of the new Core is more interdisciplinary, requires service learning, and promotes research and internship experiences. Increased outreach to pre-college students and successful co-curricular programs such as the Math, Science, Technology (MST) Enrichment Program, the Math Clinic and the High School Computer Programming Competition, have contributed to increased enrollment in the STEM disciplines and have also had a broader impact on the local community. Educational opportunities and student support services were expanded and every MOSAIC scholar was assigned a faculty mentor who was a role model, provided academic guidance and early intervention, resulting in increased retention. In addition the services of a peer-tutoring Math Lab and Academic Center were expanded. We have learned valuable lessons from our MOSAIC program, which has facilitated the engagement of students in collaborative learning, interdisciplinary activities, community outreach and research projects. We are grateful to NSF for providing us with the foundation upon which to build our STEM program and scholarships. Through this grant we have been able to seek other funding to improve our science and technology facilities. We will continue to expand our corporate outreach, inviting corporations to offer tours, internships, summer employment and even partial scholarships to our MOSAIC students. It is through this united effort that we hope this very effective and successful program will become self-sustaining.
