Metacommunity for Broadening Participation in STEM Undergraduate Education

美国学院和大学协会（AAC U）及其万花筒项目（PKAL）建议开发一种交织的实践元能力，以扩大代表性不足的少数群体在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）方面的参与。拟议的元能力反映了美国国家科学基金会人力资源开发（NSF HRD）部门的目标，以显着提高代表性不足的少数民族的质量和数量，这些少数民族成功完成STEM学科的学士学位，并继续在这些领域进行研究生学习。 这一元功能将战略性地扩展现有的STEM Central网络平台，以有意义地包括NSF HRD主要研究人员（PI）的学术著作，这些研究人员既具有文化敏感性又具有权威性，从而扩大了参与理论，研究和实践。欢迎NSF人力资源开发PI加入STEM Central，以及他们将贡献的多样化观点和专业知识，对于解决，推进和加速当代STEM高等教育改革努力的能力至关重要，以应对日益复杂，多元文化和多层面的挑战。STEM中心将为STEM教师提供一个“数字栖息地”，从广泛的机构类型到：1）同步和异步网络; 2）扩展机构视角，包括与扩大参与有关的共同目标，承诺和挑战; 3）允许集体和个性化的反思，可以更快地创造新知识; 4）促进创新的可能性;五是深化专业联系。扩大参与元社区的具体目标是：1）扩展STEM Central网络平台，以有意义地纳入NSF HRD主要研究者; 2）加强支持网络，以扩大主流STEM高等教育中的参与专业发展。元能力将通过STEM Central在线平台立即影响7，000多名STEM教师;并通过提供战术工具，策略和评估方法来扩大参与并衡量其有效性，直接或间接地影响这些教师在课堂或实验室中遇到的数万名学生。

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and its Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) propose to develop an interlacing metacommunity of practice for broadening participation of underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The proposed metacommunity mirrors the goals of the National Science Foundation Human Resource Development (NSF HRD) Division to significantly increase the quality and quantity of underrepresented minorities who successfully complete baccalaureate degrees in STEM disciplines, and who continue on to graduate studies in these fields. This metacommunity will strategically expand the existing STEM Central web platform to meaningfully include the scholarly works of NSF HRD principal investigators (PIs), who lend both cultural sensitivity and authority to broadening participation theory, research, and practice. The welcomed addition of NSF HRD PIs to STEM Central, and the diverse perspectives and expertise that they will contribute, are critical in addressing, advancing and accelerating the capacity of contemporary STEM higher education reform efforts to meet increasingly complex, multicultural, and multidimensional challenges. STEM Central will provide a "digital habitat" for STEM faculty from a broad range of institution types to: 1) network, both synchronously and asynchronously; 2) expand institutional perspectives to include shared goals, commitments and challenges related to broadening participation; 3) allow for collective and individualized reflection that can create new knowledge at a faster pace; 4) foster innovative possibilities; and 5) deepen professional connections. The specific objectives of the Metacommunity for Broadening Participation are to:1) expand the STEM Central web platform to meaningfully include NSF HRD principal investigators; and 2) enhance a network of support for broadening participation professional development within mainstream STEM higher education. The metacommunity will immediately impact 7,000+ STEM faculty through the STEM Central online platform; and, either directly or indirectly, impact the tens of thousands of students these faculty encounter, in the classroom or laboratory, by providing tactical tools, strategies, and evaluation methodologies for broadening participation and measuring its effectiveness.