NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: EA3 - Expanding Access to Alabama Agriscience

扩展对阿拉巴马州农业科学的访问(EA3)该NSF包括计划拨款由NSF在全国范围内纳入未被充分代表的工程和科学发现者社区(NSF Includes)资助，这是一项综合性的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大对STEM的规模参与来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。这笔规划赠款的目标是与利益相关者结成伙伴关系，以确定在阿拉巴马州扩大参与农业科学相关职业的障碍和机会。现代农业的巨大挑战是，面对可耕种土地的减少和气候变化的加剧，我们如何继续养活地球上不断增长的人口。一种解决方案是使用基因组工具来识别和纳入在面临投入减少和不确定环境的情况下增加产量的基因变化。预计劳动力使用这些工具的需求增长速度将快于全国平均水平，但与其他STEM领域一样，妇女和少数族裔目前在这些与农业科学相关的职业中任职人数不足。阿拉巴马州历来缺乏一个共同的愿景，无法将个人倡议、资源和专业知识扩展和编织成一个协调的网络，为学习者提供一条通往农业科学相关职业的途径。我们项目丰富，但“协调能力差”。这项提议旨在产生对当前形势的共同认识，深化跨部门关系，并就如何扩大从小学到劳动力的农业科学参与建立共同愿景。规划提案有四个主要目标：(1)让阿拉巴马州的农业科学和教育利益攸关方结成协作伙伴关系，以建立跨部门关系，并确定扩大农业科学劳动力参与的共同愿景；(2)确定阿拉巴马州学习者目前可获得的与农业科学有关的学生参与、职业探索和劳动力发展机会，(3)认识到限制学生获得这些机会的地理、学术、财务和文化障碍，(4)通过修改/扩展现有计划和开发新的计划，培养克服这些障碍的方法。规划过程将利用集体影响概念，以及国家科学基金包括共同愿景、伙伴关系和目标及指标的协作基础设施要素。EA3的合作伙伴包括K-12 STEM、职业和技术教育项目，以及校外组织，如美国未来农民组织、阿拉巴马州4-H组织、男孩女孩俱乐部和哈德森·阿尔法生物技术研究所的教育外展团队。来自阿拉巴马农工大学、奥本大学和塔斯基吉大学的研究和教学人员，以及来自哈德逊阿尔法大学的植物基因组学团队，将科学发现和劳动力发展联系起来。最后，阿拉巴马州农民联合会和阿拉巴马州推广办公室提供与该州农业科学产业的直接联系。在14个月的时间内，该团队将聚集在阿拉巴马州各地举行8次视频会议和5次面对面会议。这些会议的成果将被编织成一份共同愿景的声明和一项综合战略计划，以增加对阿拉巴马州农业科学相关职业的参与。这将产生持久的影响，因为利益相关者利用通过规划过程获得的知识来发展经验，有效地促进未被充分代表的人群在整个阿拉巴马州农业科学相关领域的参与和留住。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Expanding Access to Alabama Agriscience (EA3)This NSF INCLUDES planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The goal of this planning grant is to form a partnership of stakeholders to identify barriers and opportunities to broadening participation in agriscience-related careers across Alabama. The great challenge of modern agriculture is how we continue to feed Earth’s growing population in the face of shrinking farmable land and increasing climate change. One solution is to use genomic tools to identify and incorporate genetic changes that increase yields in the face of decreased inputs and uncertain environments. The demand for the workforce to use these tools is projected to grow faster than the national average, but as in other STEM fields, women and ethnic minorities are currently underrepresented in these agriscience-related careers. Alabama has historically lacked a common vision to expand and weave individual initiatives, resources and expertise into a coordinated network that provides learners with a pathway towards agriscience-related careers. We are program-rich but “coordination-poor”. This proposal seeks to generate a shared awareness of the current landscape, deepen cross-sector relationships and build a common vision for how to broaden agriscience participation from elementary school through the workforce. The planning proposal has four key objectives: (1) Engage Alabama’s agriscience and educational stakeholders in a collaborative partnership to build cross-sector relationships and identify a common vision to broaden participation across the agriscience workforce (2) Identify the agriscience-related opportunities for student engagement, career exploration and workforce development that are currently available to Alabama learners, (3) Recognize the geographic, academic, financial and cultural barriers that limit student access to these opportunities, (4) Cultivate approaches to overcome these barriers, through modifying/scaling existing initiatives as well as developing new ones. The planning process will utilize collective impact concepts as well as the NSF INCLUDES collaborative infrastructure elements of Shared Vision, Partnership and Goals and Metrics. EA3 partners includes K-12 STEM and Career and Technical Education programs, as well as out-of-school organizations like Future Farmers of America, Alabama 4-H, the Boys and Girls Club and the Educational Outreach team at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Research and teaching faculty from Alabama A&M, Auburn and Tuskegee universities, together with the plant genomics team from HudsonAlpha, link scientific discovery and workforce development. Lastly, the Alabama Farmers Federation and Alabama Extension offices provide a direct connection to the state’s agriscience industry. Over a 14-month timeframe, this team will assemble for eight videoconferences and five in-person meetings, held across Alabama. The outcomes of these meetings will be woven into a statement of shared vision and an integrated strategic plan for increasing participation in Alabama’s agriscience-related careers. This will have a lasting impact as stakeholders use the knowledge gained through the planning process to develop experiences that effectively boost the participation and retention of underrepresented populations in agriscience-related fields across Alabama.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.