S3: Science Symposium to engage STEM students

这个项目，科学研讨会，让STEM学生（S立方体），旨在扩大科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的兴趣和农村和阿拉斯加原住民学生的参与，通过两个主要的相关活动：参加锡特卡鲸鱼节，一个非传统的，非正式的科学研讨会，以及利用节日提供的资源的STEM学分课程。鲸鱼节的特色是由国内和国际公认的科学家进行演讲，他们的演讲将他们的科学专业知识与当前的全球海洋科学问题交织在一起。大学学分课程将挑战学生分析公民（包括他们自己）和杰出的海洋研究人员（包括在这些角色中思考自己）之间的联系的性质。该项目将采用各种战略，将这种学习制度化，纳入小型学院环境，并衡量其扩大到大型大学的潜力。 它将把科学带出课堂，以创新的方式让农村人口参与STEM。 S立方体项目将探讨科学研讨会出席少数民族服务机构，特别是那些服务于阿拉斯加和华盛顿农村人口的本科生的潜在好处。它将向本科生介绍科学研讨会/节日使科学相关和可访问的方式。 通过围绕科学研讨会开发和建立大学课程，这一努力希望提高宣布STEM专业的农村和服务不足学生的数量。使用高年级导师，谁已经宣布了自己的专业，S立方体将调查学生在会议期间与专业海洋科学家的时间如何转化为参与STEM教育途径。 它还将衡量学生在会议期间对STEM学科的兴趣如何转化为STEM专业的宣言或促进对相关STEM职业追求的兴趣。 这些调查将采用主要的定性方法，以便深入了解认知和文化学习过程，当地和历史实践以及跨越社会环境的教学设计挑战。人种学观察，访谈和调查将在整个课程的扩大和完善阶段与教师教师，以及与本科生的一个小的焦点队列在他们参与课程。参与这一活动的学院包括半岛社区学院、伊利萨维克部落学院和阿拉斯加东南大学。该项目由生物科学理事会，生物基础设施司和教育和人力资源理事会，本科教育司共同资助，以支持应对本科教育中的愿景和变革所带来的挑战：行动呼吁http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/。

This project, Science Symposium to Engage STEM Students (S Cubed), is designed to expand science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) interest and involvement of rural and Native Alaskan students through two principal linked activities: participation in the Sitka Whalefest, a non-traditional, informal science symposium, and a STEM credit course that capitalizes on the resources provided by the fest. The Whalefest features talks by nationally and internationally recognized scientists whose presentations interweave their scientific expertise with current global marine science issues. The college credit course will challenge students to analyze the nature of the links the fest creates between citizens (including themselves) and prominent marine researchers (including thinking of themselves in these roles). This project will use strategies to institutionalize this kind of learning into the small college setting and measure its potential for scaling up to larger universities. It will take science out of the classroom and engage a rural population in STEM in an innovative way. The S Cubed project will explore the potential benefits of science symposium attendance by undergraduates from minority serving institutions, particularly those serving rural populations in Alaska and Washington. It will introduce undergraduates to the way in which science symposia/festivals make science relevant, and accessible. By developing and instituting a college course around a science symposium, this effort hopes to improve the numbers of rural and underserved students who declare STEM majors. Using upperclassman mentors, who have already declared their majors, S Cubed will investigate how the amount of time students have with professional marine scientists during the conference translates into engagement in STEM educational pathways. It will also measure how student interest in STEM disciplines during a conference translates into a declaration of a STEM major or promotes interest in a related STEM career pursuit. Primarily qualitative methods will be employed for these investigations, so that the cognitive and cultural learning processes, local and historical practices, and challenges of pedagogical design spread across social settings can be deeply understood. Ethnographic observations, interviews, and surveys will be conducted throughout the course-scaling up and refinement phases with the faculty instructors, as well as with a small focal cohort of undergraduate students throughout their participation in the course. The colleges involved in this activity include Peninsula Community College, Ilisagvik Tribal College and the University of Alaska, Southeast. This project is funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education in support of efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/.