Providing Work-based Experiences for Community College Biotechnology Students by Developing a Biotechnology Educational Materials Supply Chain

本计划建议提供以工作为基础的教育经验，以帮助社区大学学生为从事生物技术的职业做好准备。项目合作伙伴包括Skyline社区学院、Laney社区学院、地区高中科学教师和非营利社区合作伙伴湾区生物科学教育社区。该项目将为社区大学学生提供以技能为基础的职业培训，让他们参与准备、质量测试和包装用于高中生物课程的低成本生物技术材料。这些材料的例子包括在生物技术和生物研究中的DNA分析等过程中常用的溶液和混合物。社区大学的学生在为高中课程准备这些教育材料的同时，还学习了工业生物制造程序和质量控制过程。通过社区大学生物技术教室制作这些材料将节省下来，并将传递下去，帮助高中教师更容易在他们的高中科学课堂上提供生物技术教育经验。通过这些努力，该项目旨在使高中更能负担得起生物技术科学教育材料，并为社区大学学生提供基于工作的学习经验，为他们成为熟练的生物技术人员做好准备。在之前的工作基础上，制定了一个成功的计划，招募高中学生进入社区大学生物技术项目，该项目旨在：1)在过去的成功和经验教训的基础上，扩大和改进试点项目；2)在高中和社区学院之间建立更强的联系和教育途径；3)为教师提供专业发展，并与高中合作，共同开发新的高中生物技术课程；4)在区域范围内扩大项目规模，与行业建立伙伴关系，并纳入长期可持续性措施。如果取得成功，该项目将为可持续技术人员教育提供一个可行且可扩展的模板，该模板融合了多个部门和机构的最佳实践。在提供生物技术职业道路的过程中，该项目包括旨在确保所有学生都有公平机会参与的方法。该项目的一个重要特点是它计划扩展到所有学生都需要的高中科学入门课程。这样的扩展将使他们能够接触到所有的学生，而不仅仅是那些自选生物技术选修课的学生。这种方法可能有助于国家发展更多样化的员工渠道，使其成为高技能的技术人员。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project proposes to provide work-based educational experiences to help prepare community college students for careers in biotechnology. Project partners include Skyline Community College, Laney Community College, regional high school science teachers, and a nonprofit community partner, Bay Area Bioscience Education Community. The project will provide community college students with skills-based job training by involving them in preparation, quality testing, and packaging of low-cost biotechnology materials for use in high school biology courses. Examples of these materials include solutions and mixtures that are commonly used in processes such as DNA analysis in both biotechnology and biological research. As they prepare these educational materials for use in high school classes, community college students learn industry bio-manufacturing procedures and quality control processes. Production of these materials via community college biotechnology classrooms will result in savings that will be passed on, helping high school teachers to more readily provide biotechnology educational experiences in their high school science classrooms. Through these efforts, the project aims to make biotechnology science education materials more affordable to high schools and provide community college students with work-based learning experiences that prepare them for jobs as skilled biotechnicians. Building on prior work that developed a successful plan to recruit high school students into community college biotechnology programs, this project aims to: 1) Expand and improve the pilot program by building upon past success and lessons learned; 2) Create stronger linkages and educational pathways between high schools and community colleges; 3) Provide professional development for faculty and collaborate with high schools to co-develop a new high school biotechnology curriculum; and 4) Scale the project regionally, engage industry in partnerships, and incorporate long-term sustainability measures. If successful, the project will provide a workable and scalable template for sustainable technician education that incorporates best practices across multiple sectors and institutions. In providing pathways to careers in biotechnology, the project has included approaches intended to ensure that all students have equitable access to participate. An important feature of the project is its plan to expand into introductory high school science courses that are required for all students. Such an expansion will enable them to reach all students, not just those who self-select into biotechnology electives. This approach is likely to help the nation to develop a more diverse pipeline of employees into the highly skilled technician workforce. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.