Biofab Explorer: Designing A Dual Enrollment Pathway to Careers in Biofabrication

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The project will develop biofabrication career guidance curriculum and materials, situate these within Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms that offer dual enrolment (i.e., college credit during high school), and provide professional development to educators on how to create inclusive and industry-aligned career guidance. Biofabrication refers to the production of human tissues from organic and synthetic sources. The project meets regional industry needs for STEM technicians by targeting the early stages of the biomanufacturing talent pipeline—high school CTE students, for whom internships can be scarce and who lack awareness of STEM technician roles in biomanufacturing. The project will provide career awareness for students and educators of the biofabrication industry, and support skill and knowledge development for a diverse group of students so they can build industry relevant skills, and increase access to STEM technician education in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and North Carolina — all hubs for biomanufacturing. The project provides a model for aligning emerging areas of advanced manufacturing with education and career guidance and addresses critical gaps in career guidance by creating inclusive opportunities for a broad range of students to build self-efficacy beliefs, understand biomanufacturing, and demonstrate industry relevant skills and knowledge.The project brings together CAST, Manchester Community College, Great Bay Community College, Johnston Community College, secondary CTE centers—including guidance counselors, administrators, educators, and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI)/BioFab USA to accomplish three goals. First, the project will identify and validate Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) for STEM technician roles in biofabrication and create career guidance curriculum including a career guidance website, work-based learning simulations, and activities teachers can use to help students explore careers and develop and demonstrate industry skills. Working together, ARMI experts, the Business and Industry Leadership Team, and secondary and post-secondary educator will use Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an approach to designing learning environments and education technologies with all student needs in mind, for curriculum development. Second, Biofab Explorer and the eportfolio technologies developed by CAST will be piloted in two dual enrollment models, one in high school CTE settings taught by high school CTE teachers with community college faculty oversight (Manchester Community College and Great Bay Community College, NH) and one in a CTE secondary program taught by community college faculty and (Johnston Community College, NC). Third, professional development workshops for secondary and postsecondary educators will be delivered to 1) introduce the career guidance curriculum, Biofab Explorer, and the eportfolio, 2) identify ways these digital environments can increase knowledge of STEM technician opportunities, 3) provide hands-on skill building with Work Based Learning (WBL) simulations, and 4) model how UDL strategies can help recruit and support students underrepresented in STEM education and careers. A regional workshop will be offered to educators from across New Hampshire and Massachusetts and a second regional workshop will be offered to educators from across North Carolina. 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.