NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Idaho STEM Ecosystem

NSF 包括规划拨款：爱达荷州 STEM 生态系统

• 批准号: 2013234
• 负责人: Kaitlin Maguire
• 金额: $ 9.95万
• 依托单位: IDAHO, STATE OF
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-15 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2013234&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; INCLUDES; Planning; Grant; Idaho

Idaho citizens are entering STEM pathways at a rate lower than current and projected STEM workforce needs in this country. Opportunity gaps, especially among some demographics, significantly limit participation in STEM pathways and careers. A cross-sector effort is needed to address these challenges and improve STEM outcomes for historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged groups. The Idaho STEM Ecosystem was recently established to serve this need. It endeavors to broaden participation in STEM by facilitating access to, and success in, STEM educational programs to prepare a more robust and diverse STEM workforce. With over a dozen partnering organizations throughout the state, the Idaho STEM Ecosystem brings together a large contingency of stakeholders poised to advance systemic change in STEM education practices and workforce development and training. The goal of this planning grant is to support the Idaho STEM Ecosystem in developing a statewide strategic plan for STEM education in Idaho focused on broadening participation in STEM. It will build on its established shared vision and partnerships to further develop its collaborative infrastructure to support a scaled network through regional hubs. It will also draw upon resources and expertise gleaned through existing connections with EPSCoR jurisdictions and the NSF INCLUDES Intermountain STEM Design and Development Launch Pilot. If successful, this planning grant will lay the foundation for a large-scale network with broader impacts that extend beyond the state of Idaho.Over the yearlong project duration, the catalytic activities will focus on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure: Goals & Metrics and Leadership & Communication. These activities will primarily be to conduct regional STEM education needs assessments and convene two working retreats in areas of need with partners from the education, business, government, and nonprofit sectors. The targeted underrepresented and economically disadvantaged communities in Idaho will play a salient role in this work, as their participation and input are critical to understanding and addressing the broadening participation challenges. Systemic change will be central to all activities and products including: (1) STEM education needs assessments for the three main regions of the state, (2) a state STEM education strategic plan with goals, objectives, outcomes and metrics, (3) a communication plan for the Idaho STEM Ecosystem, and (4) a leadership plan for the Idaho STEM Ecosystem. This work will be guided by a backbone organization, the Idaho STEM Action Center. The Idaho STEM Ecosystem will leverage the experiences and gained knowledge on developing state STEM education plans, state STEM networks, measuring broadening participation in STEM, and state level data collection plans and will partner with organizations in the NSF INCLUDES National Network to accomplish mutual goals in broadening participation. As a result of this planning grant, the Idaho STEM Ecosystem anticipates having a clear path forward to reach its vision of an equitable, STEM-literate citizenry that supports a strong workforce and economy, by closing demographic gaps and increasing the STEM and economic opportunities.This 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.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.

爱达荷州公民进入STEM道路的速度低于美国目前和预计的STEM劳动力需求。机会差距，特别是在某些人口统计学中，极大地限制了STEM途径和职业的参与。需要跨部门的努力来应对这些挑战，并为历史上代表性不足和经济弱势群体改善STEM成果。爱达荷州STEM生态系统最近成立，以满足这一需求。它通过促进STEM教育项目的获得和成功，努力扩大STEM的参与，以培养一支更强大、更多样化的STEM劳动力。爱达荷州的STEM生态系统拥有十多个合作组织，汇集了大量利益相关者，准备推动STEM教育实践和劳动力发展与培训的系统性变革。该规划赠款的目标是支持爱达荷州STEM生态系统制定爱达荷州STEM教育的全州战略计划，重点是扩大STEM的参与。它将以其既定的共同愿景和伙伴关系为基础，进一步发展其协作基础设施，通过区域中心支持规模网络。它还将利用通过与EPSCoR管辖区和NSF包括山间STEM设计和开发启动试点的现有联系收集的资源和专业知识。如果成功，这笔规划拨款将为大规模网络奠定基础，其影响将扩展到爱达荷州以外。在为期一年的项目期间，催化活动将集中在协作基础设施的五个NSF INCLUDES设计元素中的两个：目标与度量和领导与沟通。这些活动将主要是进行区域STEM教育需求评估，并与来自教育、商业、政府和非营利部门的合作伙伴在需要的领域召开两次工作务静会。爱达荷州代表性不足和经济上处于不利地位的目标社区将在这项工作中发挥突出作用，因为他们的参与和投入对于理解和解决日益扩大的参与挑战至关重要。系统性变革将是所有活动和产品的核心，包括：(1)该州三个主要地区的STEM教育需求评估，(2)包含目标、目标、成果和指标的州STEM教育战略计划，(3)爱达荷州STEM生态系统的沟通计划，以及(4)爱达荷州STEM生态系统的领导计划。这项工作将由骨干组织爱达荷州STEM行动中心指导。爱达荷州STEM生态系统将利用在制定州STEM教育计划、州STEM网络、衡量扩大STEM参与和州一级数据收集计划方面的经验和获得的知识，并将与NSF INCLUDES国家网络中的组织合作，以实现扩大参与的共同目标。由于这项规划拨款，爱达荷州STEM生态系统预计将有一条明确的前进道路，通过缩小人口差距，增加STEM和经济机会，实现公平，STEM素养公民的愿景，支持强大的劳动力和经济。该计划由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）在全国范围内的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。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。