The Knox College S-STEM COAST program (Creating Opportunities and Access in Science and Technology) increases the number of academically talented students with financial need who complete STEM degrees and matriculate into STEM graduate degree programs and careers. This project targets first-year, full-time students with financial need who have demonstrated motivation and aptitude to pursue STEM degrees, including first-generation students and students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. This project targets candidates and recruits them into introductory STEM coursework, providing complementary support services designed to mitigate the frustrations that can deter otherwise qualified students from persisting in STEM majors. The project also leverages a natural affinity between all Biology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry students who share common degree requirements.
The Intellectual Merit derives from a strong network of support services and resources for students that will be repurposed, tailored, and marketed to target academically talented students with financial need who have strong STEM potential. This S-STEM project builds on benchmark studies about student persistence and best practices in STEM service provision and establishes programmatic guidelines and structures based on extensive institutional data and assessment. The construction of a learning community ensures that COAST Candidate outcomes improve as measured by successful completion of STEM coursework, declared STEM majors, and persistence to graduation.
The Broader Impacts derive from the evaluation plan that statistically assesses program outcomes and builds upon what is known about STEM student success by testing the conclusions of key studies within the context of this project. Dissemination efforts utilize electronic and web-based media, presentations and publications to ensure that STEM educators have direct access to marketing materials, assessment rubrics and tools, raw and analyzed data, and evaluation results. In this way, this project contributes to the understanding among the STEM education community of how to support and increase the number of students, particularly those from underserved populations, earning STEM degrees and matriculating into graduate degree programs and careers in STEM fields.
