Planning Grant for the Center for Technological Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial- and Soft-Skills across the STEM Spectrum

随着STEM技术人员越来越多地参与多学科项目，团队合作、沟通、人际关系和商业技能成为成功就业的关键。虚拟企业研究所提议规划一个技术创业中心，提供在技术课程中注入创业精神的手段。该中心根据社区大学的成功做法，例如基于问题和基于情景的学习，开发、维护和传播单元课程材料，包括在虚拟企业研究所开发和测试的材料。使用这些材料的学生，特别是那些在STEM技术员领域任职人数不足的学生和来自农村地区的学生，通过一系列虚拟活动进行联网。这些模块材料通过由该中心指导的教员示范站点网络进行传播。规划过程包括与工业界和学术界的咨询伙伴共同举办两个讲习班，以确定社区大学创业STEM教育的状况，并调查创业学生网络的需求和设计。规划过程还编制了STEM企业家所需技能的目录，并验证了开发模块材料的方法，通过开发教员示范站点将这些技能注入现有的STEM课程。

As STEM technicians are increasingly involved in multidisciplinary projects, team work, communications, interpersonal and business skills become crucial to successful employment. The Institute for Virtual Enterprise proposes to plan for a Center for Technological Entrepreneurship that provides the means to infuse entrepreneurship in technical courses. The Center develops, maintains and disseminates modular curricular materials based on successful practices at community colleges such as problem- and scenario- based learning and including those developed and tested in the Virtual Enterprise Institute. Students using these materials, particularly those from populations underrepresented in STEM technician fields and students from rural areas, are networked through a series of virtual activities. The modular materials are disseminated through a network of faculty demonstration sites mentored by the Center. The planning process includes two workshops with advisory partners from industry and academia that are to determine the state of entrepreneurial STEM education at community colleges and to investigate the need for and design of entrepreneurship student networks. The planning process also produces a catalog of the skills required by STEM entrepreneurs and validates the approach of developing modular materials to infuse these skills into existing STEM courses through the development of faculty demonstration sites.