Promoting STEM Education at Two-Year Colleges (PSE2YC)

美国的两年制大学（2YCs）培养了大量且快速增长的本科生，其中包括大量科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的学生。此外，2YCs所服务的学生的种族、民族和地理多样性使这些机构成为STEM领域的关键切入点，这些学生在STEM学科中历来代表性不足。但是，尽管美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的项目向2YC开放，但2YC的教师往往缺乏经验、资源和机构支持，无法有效地竞争这些项目拨款。促进两年制大学STEM教育（PSE2YC）项目将帮助2YC教师团队撰写有价值的提案，以获得NSF STEM相关项目的资助。PSE2YC项目包括一个提案写作研讨会和50名2YC STEM教师的指导计划。该项目设计解决了2YC在参加先进技术教育（ATE）和STEM （S-STEM）项目竞赛中获得奖学金方面面临的障碍，以及2YC申请者和奖项数量较少的问题。该项目以以前的项目为基础，通过针对两个专门减少2YC学生遇到的障碍的项目，帮助2YC学生为NSF拨款竞赛准备有价值的提案：ATE项目，支持发展导致高科技领域工作的两年制学位，以及S-STEM项目，奖励奖学金支持并为STEM专业提供支持性的群体活动。由经验丰富的主要研究人员和导师提供的为期两年的讲习班和指导将加强个人和机构在美国两年制大学开展基于提案的项目的能力。主要成果将包括增加2YC机构提交的竞争性ATE和S-STEM提案的数量，以及为2YC提供更强大的STEM拨款撰写文化。总体而言，该项目将通过赋予更多STEM教师和两年制机构更多的权利来竞争有价值的NSF奖项，从而为加强STEM劳动力的国家议程做出贡献。

America's two-year colleges (2YCs) educate a substantial and rapidly growing number of undergraduate students, including a significant number of students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Furthermore, the racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity of students served by 2YCs make these institutions key entry points to STEM fields for students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines. But, while National Science Foundation (NSF) programs that increase representation in STEM are open to 2YCs, 2YC faculty often lack the experience, resources, and institutional support to effectively compete for these program grants. The Promoting STEM Education at Two Year Colleges (PSE2YC) project will facilitate meritorious proposal writing among 2YC faculty teams for NSF STEM related program funding.The PSE2YC project consists of a proposal writing workshop and mentoring program for 50 2YC STEM faculty members. The project design addresses barriers faced by 2YCs to participation in Advanced Technological Education (ATE) and Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) program competitions, and the low number of 2YC applicants and awards. This project builds on previous projects that facilitated 2YCs in preparing meritorious proposals for NSF grant competitions by targeting two programs that specifically reduce barriers encountered by 2YC students: the ATE program, which supports development of two-year degrees leading to jobs in high-technology fields, and the S-STEM program, which awards scholarship support and provides supportive cohorting activities for STEM majors. The workshop and two-year mentoring by experienced principal investigators and mentors will strengthen individual and institutional capacity to pursue proposal-based projects in America's two-year colleges. The key outcomes will include an increase in the number of competitive ATE and S-STEM proposals submitted by 2YC institutions and a stronger STEM grant writing culture for 2YCs. Overall, this project will contribute to the national agenda of strengthening the STEM workforce by empowering more STEM faculty and two-year institutions to compete for meritorious NSF awards.