IGE: Stakeholder-Driven Sustainable Development Experiences for Enhancing STEM Graduate Education

IGE：利益相关者驱动的可持续发展经验，以加强 STEM 研究生教育

• 批准号: 2105726
• 负责人: Rachel Brennan
• 金额: $ 45.82万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-15 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2105726&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IGE; Stakeholder; Driven; Sustainable; Development

Graduate students trained in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are essential for supporting innovation in sustainable development strategies, particularly for enhancing resiliency to unprecedented global challenges such as climate change, human migration, and pandemics. However, there is growing concern that STEM graduate education may be falling short on preparing the nation’s workforce to face these global challenges. Equipping students with transformative skills in STEM is necessary for their future success, and for the sustainable development of society. This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to Pennsylvania State University will engage underrepresented graduate students in real-world international experiences. Students will develop creative solutions to complex sustainable development challenges as an integral part of team working in close collaboration with local communities. Each year, a cohort of 12 graduate students will advance technical, ecological, and social strategies for sustainable development in 1- to 6-month research internships at different sites around the world. To empower them to effectively and compassionately advocate for change where it is needed most, participants will also receive modular professional development training in science communication, multiculturalism, global leadership, and environmental justice. As a result, students will be better prepared to pursue diverse professional careers in sustainable development, increasing the capacity of the future workforce to solve important environmental challenges. The overarching goal of this IGE project is to improve the scientific basis of environmental decision-making, and increase the likelihood of successful implementation of sustainability strategies now and into the future. To meet this goal, this program aims to advance project-based learning through hypothesis-driven contextual systems research in sustainable development. Collaborative, stakeholder-driven research topics intersect at the water-energy-food nexus and include: water treatment and reuse; renewable energy production; nutrient management; sustainable agricultural systems; reducing air pollution and carbon emissions; remote sensing for environmental impact assessment; and climate change mitigation. Sustainable development provides a unifying and motivational theme under which faculty and students can work together across traditional academic boundaries, providing inherent opportunities for teamwork and transdisciplinary collaboration. This initiative is strategically designed to train and empower students that are members of underrepresented groups to develop and mobilize sustainable development solutions together with stakeholders and leading experts. Further, this project will build the foundational principles of transformative graduate education in sustainability that can be replicated at community-engaged institutions everywhere. The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.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.

经过科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)培训的研究生对于支持可持续发展战略的创新至关重要，特别是在增强应对气候变化、人类移民和流行病等前所未有的全球挑战方面。然而，人们越来越担心，STEM研究生教育可能无法为该国的劳动力做好应对这些全球挑战的准备。让学生掌握STEM的变革技能，对于他们未来的成功和社会的可持续发展是必要的。这项授予宾夕法尼亚州立大学的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新奖(IGE)将吸引未被充分代表的研究生参与现实世界的国际体验。学生将作为与当地社区密切合作的团队的一部分，为复杂的可持续发展挑战开发创造性的解决方案。每年，12名研究生将在全球不同地点进行为期1至6个月的研究实习，推进可持续发展的技术、生态和社会战略。为了使他们能够在最需要的地方有效和富有同情心地倡导变革，参与者还将接受关于科学传播、多元文化、全球领导力和环境正义的模块化专业发展培训。因此，学生将为在可持续发展中追求多样化的职业生涯做好更好的准备，从而提高未来劳动力解决重大环境挑战的能力。IGE项目的总体目标是改善环境决策的科学基础，增加现在和未来成功实施可持续发展战略的可能性。为了实现这一目标，该项目旨在通过可持续发展中假设驱动的背景系统研究来推进基于项目的学习。由利益攸关方驱动的协作研究专题在水-能源-粮食关系中交叉，包括：水处理和再利用；可再生能源生产；养分管理；可持续农业系统；减少空气污染和碳排放；环境影响评估的遥感；以及减缓气候变化。可持续发展提供了一个统一和激励的主题，在这个主题下，教师和学生可以跨越传统的学术边界一起工作，为团队合作和跨学科合作提供内在的机会。这一倡议的战略目的是培训和增强代表不足群体成员的学生与利益攸关方和主要专家一起制定和动员可持续发展解决方案的能力。此外，该项目将建立可持续发展的变革性研究生教育的基本原则，这些原则可以在任何地方的社区参与机构中复制。研究生教育创新(IGE)项目专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试验、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了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。