Expanding Educational Opportunities for Secondary and Post-Secondary Educators and Students in the Technology and Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

扩大中学和高等教育工作者和学生在无人机系统技术和应用方面的教育机会

• 批准号: 2201214
• 负责人: Ken Yanow
• 金额: $ 65万
• 依托单位: Southwestern College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2201214&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Expanding; Educational; Opportunities; Secondary; Post

Labor market studies of the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or “Drones” industry indicate that UAS is now a significant driver of job and economic growth in many regions across the nation. The UAS industry is well established in the San Diego region thanks to major employers in the industry as well as numerous other small to medium sized businesses. The outlook in the region is growing as the use of UAS across a variety of disciplines is increasing. Yet despite the high demand in the market, the skills gap is rising leaving drone service providers and related organizations scrambling to fill drone-related positions. This project will address the needs of an ever-expanding industry by providing both secondary and post-secondary educators and students with a variety of educational opportunities, such as: 1) Up-to-date and relevant work-based curriculum; 2) Articulation agreements between partnering secondary and post-secondary institutions; 3) Professional development workshops in UAS applications and operations; and 4) Summer high school academies specifically designed to inform and excite students (many of whom are from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities) about UAS applications, educational opportunities, and career pathways. A unique element of the summer academies is the inclusion of students from the Pacific Islands, providing an opportunity for students from San Diego County and the Pacific Islands to become culturally connected, learn from one another, work together with different global perspectives to solve problems, and potentially make life-long connections with someone from a different part of the world. The project team includes college faculty, secondary school partners, educational consultants, and industry professionals. This project will provide relevant curriculum and educational opportunities for both secondary and post-secondary students, better preparing them to become skilled and thoughtful members of the UAS workforce.The mission of this project is to strengthen the educational opportunities and career pathways in drone technology and applications for secondary and post-secondary students so that they can succeed as employees or entrepreneurs in the ever-expanding UAS field. To meet the mission, three goals will be implemented, each with a set of objectives, activities, and deliverables: 1) Curriculum: In consultation with industry and education partners, the project team will: a) Create industry-aligned work-based learning projects; b) Develop and offer an advanced course in drone photography and videography; c) Create a set of engineering learning modules (in manufacturing, maintenance, and customization) to be offered in existing introductory engineering courses which will then be added to the list of program electives. 2) Professional Development: UAS are being used across a variety of disciplines, therefore it is important that secondary and post-secondary educators in those disciplines have hands-on, professional development opportunities in UAS applications so that they can share this information with their students. As part of the 2-day workshops, participants will create curriculum that will be vetted and placed on the National Center for Autonomous Technologies (NCAT) resource repository. 3) Secondary Education: In order to link high school learning experiences to college and careers, the project will do the following activities: a) Partner high school UAS curriculum will be cross-walked and modified where needed in order to articulate it to the college curriculum. The articulated course will create an academic pipeline for students, as the course will go toward the completion of the Southwestern College Drone Technology and Applications Certificate. b) The project will host hybrid summer drone academies for students in San Diego County and the Pacific Islands. At the academies, students will receive real-time instruction on flight training, data collection/processing, autonomous flight coding, and collaborative problem solving. The project evaluation will include formative feedback throughout the 3-year project along with annual evaluation reports that will assess progress towards achieving the goals and objectives. A summative evaluation at the end of the project will examine the effectiveness of strategies and provide an overall assessment of how well the project has met its goals. To maximize impact, the best practices and resulting content of the project will be documented and disseminated in publications, at various conferences, and on NCAT. 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.

对无人机系统（UAS）或“无人机”行业的劳动力市场研究表明，UAS现在是全国许多地区就业和经济增长的重要推动力。由于该行业的主要雇主以及许多其他中小型企业，UAS行业在圣地亚哥地区建立得很好。该地区的前景正在增长，因为各种学科的UAS使用正在增加。然而，尽管市场需求很高，但技能差距正在扩大，使得无人机服务提供商和相关组织争相填补无人机相关职位。该项目将通过为中学和中学后教育工作者和学生提供各种教育机会来满足不断扩大的行业的需求，例如：1）最新和相关的基于工作的课程; 2）合作中学和中学后机构之间的衔接协议; 3）无人机系统应用和操作方面的专业发展讲习班;和4）专门设计的暑期高中学院，旨在告知和激发学生（其中许多人来自传统上服务不足和代表性不足的社区）关于UAS应用程序，教育机会和职业途径。夏季学院的一个独特元素是来自太平洋岛屿的学生，为来自圣地亚哥县和太平洋岛屿的学生提供了一个机会，使他们能够在文化上相互联系，相互学习，与不同的全球视角合作解决问题，并有可能与来自世界不同地区的人建立终身联系。项目团队包括大学教师、中学合作伙伴、教育顾问和行业专业人士。该项目的使命是为中学生和大专学生提供无人机技术和应用方面的教育机会和职业发展途径，使他们能够在不断扩大的无人机领域成为成功的员工或企业家。 为了实现这一使命，将实现三个目标，每个目标都有一套目标、活动和可交付成果：1）课程：与行业和教育合作伙伴协商，项目团队将：a）创建与行业一致的基于工作的学习项目; B）开发和提供无人机摄影和摄像的高级课程; c）创建一套工程学习模块（在制造，维护和定制）将在现有的介绍性工程课程，然后将被添加到程序选修课程列表中提供。2)专业发展：无人机系统正在各种学科中使用，因此，这些学科的中学和中学后教育工作者必须在无人机系统应用中获得实践和专业发展机会，以便他们可以与学生分享这些信息。作为为期2天的研讨会的一部分，参与者将创建课程，这些课程将经过审查并放置在国家自主技术中心（NCAT）资源库中。3)中等教育：为了将高中学习经验与大学和职业联系起来，该项目将开展以下活动：a）合作伙伴高中UAS课程将在需要时交叉并修改，以便将其与大学课程相结合。该课程将为学生创建一个学术管道，因为该课程将完成西南大学无人机技术和应用证书。B）该项目将为圣地亚哥县和太平洋岛屿的学生举办混合夏季无人机学院。在学院，学生将接受有关飞行训练、数据收集/处理、自主飞行编码和协作解决问题的实时指导。项目评价将包括整个3年期项目的形成性反馈沿着评估实现目标和目的进展情况的年度评价报告。项目结束时的总结性评价将检查战略的有效性，并对项目实现目标的情况进行总体评估。为了最大限度地扩大影响，将在出版物、各种会议和国家计算机辅助教学网络上记录和传播该项目的最佳做法和产生的内容。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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。