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

扩大阿拉巴马州农业科学（EA3）这项NSF INCLUDES规划拨款由美国国家科学基金会全国工程和科学领域未被充分代表的发现者学习者社区（NSF INCLUDES）资助，这是一项全面的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大STEM的大规模参与来增强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。这一规划赠款的目标是形成利益相关者的伙伴关系，以确定障碍和机会，以扩大在亚拉巴马州农业科学相关职业的参与。现代农业面临的巨大挑战是，面对日益萎缩的可耕地和日益加剧的气候变化，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整合在面临投入减少和不确定环境时增加产量的遗传变化。预计对劳动力使用这些工具的需求增长速度将超过全国平均水平，但与其他STEM领域一样，目前在这些与农业科学相关的职业中，女性和少数民族的代表性不足。阿拉巴马州历来缺乏一个共同的愿景，将个人的倡议、资源和专业知识扩展和编织成一个协调的网络，为学习者提供通往农业科学相关职业的途径。我们项目丰富，但“缺乏协调”。该提案旨在建立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。规划建议有四个主要目标：(1)让阿拉巴马州的农业科学和教育利益相关者参与合作伙伴关系，建立跨部门关系，并确定一个共同的愿景，以扩大农业科学劳动力的参与；(2)确定阿拉巴马州学习者目前可以获得的与农业科学相关的学生参与、职业探索和劳动力发展的机会；(3)认识到地理、学术、(4)培养克服这些障碍的方法，通过修改/扩大现有的倡议以及开发新的倡议。规划过程将利用集体影响概念以及NSF包括共享愿景、伙伴关系、目标和指标的协作基础设施要素。EA3的合作伙伴包括K-12 STEM和职业技术教育项目，以及校外组织，如美国未来农民、阿拉巴马州4-H、男孩女孩俱乐部和哈德逊阿尔法生物技术研究所的教育推广团队。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alpha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事处提供了与该州农业产业的直接联系。在14个月的时间框架内，该团队将在阿拉巴马州举行8次视频会议和5次面对面会议。这些会议的成果将被编入一份共同愿景声明和一项综合战略计划，以增加阿拉巴马州农业科学相关事业的参与。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开发经验，有效地促进阿拉巴马州农业科学相关领域中代表性不足的人口的参与和保留。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。

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.