Workshop: Reducing Cultural Barriers to STEM for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, a collaborative proposal.

该项目将支持将于2017年7月17日至18日在关岛召开的为期两天的研讨会，讨论如何减轻夏威夷原住民和太平洋岛民（NHPI）充分参与STEM的文化障碍。来自美属萨摩亚、关岛、北方马里亚纳群岛联邦和自由联系条约国家（CoFA）等美属太平洋岛屿地区学校的社区领袖、教职员工和教师将参加此次研讨会。本次研讨会遵循了2016年举办的一次研讨会的建议，该研讨会讨论了阻碍NHPI学生从事STEM职业的各种障碍。研讨会上出现的主要问题之一是存在强烈的文化习俗，这可能被视为年轻学生追求STEM职业的障碍。目前，海平面上升带来了迫在眉睫的风险，对一些岛屿上的家园、农业和继续居住造成了威胁。因此，有一个强烈的愿望，以增长本地NH和PI人才谁拥有的专业知识，以解决威胁。该研讨会将导致对NHPI面临的问题进行积极讨论，并制定计划以解决STEM参与的障碍。预计当当地态度发生变化时，包括理解对STEM识字公民的迫切需要，以及一些岛屿学校的课程和学术结构发生变化时，更多的学生将倾向于攻读STEM学位。该研讨会的成果将包括一份公开提供的书面文件/报告。增加STEM领域的夏威夷土著和太平洋岛民人数将使该群体能够积极参与制定解决岛民因气候变化而面临的许多问题的解决方案。拟议的研讨会将为太平洋地区的学校和学院的公民、教师和工作人员提供潜在的解决方案，以吸引更多的人才进入STEM。该项目得到了NSF生物科学理事会生物基础设施司的支持。

This project will support a two-day workshop to be convened in Guam, on July 17-18, 2017, to discuss ways to mitigate cultural barriers that challenge the full participation by Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) in STEM. Participating in the workshop will be community leaders, faculty and teachers from schools in the US Pacific Island territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Compact-of-Free-Association countries (CoFA).This workshop follows the recommendations from a prior workshop, held in 2016, that discussed various barriers that prevent NHPI students from pursuing a STEM career. One of the main issues that surfaced at that workshop was the presence of strong cultural practices that could be seen as a barrier for young students to pursue a STEM career. Currently, there is an imminent risk presented by rising sea levels that have resulted in threats to homes, agriculture and continued residence in some of the islands. Therefore, there is a strong desire to grow native NH and PI talent who have the expertise to address the threats. The workshop will result in active discussions of the issues facing NHPI, and the creation of plans to address the barriers to STEM participation. It is anticipated that when changes in local attitudes, including understanding for the pressing need for STEM-literate citizens, and in the curricula and academic structure of some of the island schools are made, more students would be inclined to pursue STEM degrees. An outcome of this workshop will include a written document/report that will be made publicly available. Increasing the number Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in STEM fields will allow this group to actively engage in devising solutions to the many problems faced by the islanders due to changing climate. The proposed workshop will provide a group of citizens, faculty and staff at schools and colleges across the Pacific with potential solutions to be able to attract more talent into STEM. This project is supported by the Division of Biological Infrastructure in the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences.