AJ Metz & Karen Tao receive NSF Grant

Assistant Professors in Educational Psychology have receive a National Science Foundation grant.  The grant title is Factors for STEM Students Success: The Relative Influence of Self-Efficacy, Mentorship, Leadership, & Belonging. This project will support three cohorts of five undergraduate computer science students through scholarships, training, mentoring, and leadership roles as well as investigate and address factors for STEM student success. The objectives of the project are to (a) improve the educational opportunities for and retention of traditionally underrepresented students in computer science and (b) understand the social cognitive, psychological and cultural factors and curricular/co-curricular interventions that promote academic success and retention in computer science. 

 A.J. Metz and Karen Tao are Co-PIs on the grant along with PI David Johnson who is a professor in Computer Science. We will be examining various aspects of the project, including students' basic scholastic and persistence skills, their sense of belonging through structured activities, outcomes related to mentoring, and how leadership roles influence retention and persistence attitudes.