The interdisciplinary Environmental Science and Marine Science programs at Kutztown University were under-enrolled for several years. To raise the visibility of these programs, we developed a multi-faceted plan to attract high ability students, to provide an academic support program for incoming students, and to offer students a variety of opportunities, on campus and through field trips, to learn about basic and applied science, career options in science, and to encourage students to seek research or internship opportunities during their undergraduate years. With National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S-STEM) funding, we were able to offer a number of students need-based scholarship support, along with the multi-pronged Teaching, Research, and Careers at Kutztown in Science (TRACKS) program which offers benefits that extend not only to scholarship recipients but also to other interested students in the Environmental and Marine Science programs. At the Ecological Society of America meeting in 2014, we provided a mid-project report on the status of efforts to establish the TRACKS program and student assessment of the various components of the program. As the first Freshmen to Senior cohort concludes their studies, we wish to re-evaluate the status of the project and to report on past successes and challenges and to look ahead to sustaining the TRACKS program.
Results/Conclusions
In four years, we have offered S-STEM scholarship support for one or more semesters to 31 different students. Attendance and participation in TRACKS Program activities is recorded; over four years more than 90% of STEM scholars attended 50% or more of scheduled activities including learning community academic support meetings, presentations by faculty or by other students about strategies to find a research project or internship, seminars by academicians or scientists working for government or non-profit agencies, and four off-campus trips per year to museums, zoos, aquariums, science-related businesses, including an annual alternative spring break trip. The majority of students report the TRACKS program has helped them: 1) to feel connected, through team-building, to others in their major, 2) to find their way academically and in research, 3) to learn about the mission and work of the off-campus sites we’ve visited, and 4) to prepare them in their search for graduate programs or jobs upon graduation. Project benefits have extended to many other Kutztown students in the Environmental and Marine Science majors, and Biology majors, through their participation in seminars and other TRACKS activities.