MCA: Mid-Career Advancement - Using STEM Interest Profiling to Build a STEM ecosystems for underrepresented students.

NSF 21-516支持副教授级别（或同等级别）的科学家和工程师通过协同和互利的伙伴关系实质性地加强和推进他们的研究项目，通常是在他们所在机构以外的机构。该项目的总体目标是通过互利的指导伙伴关系来加强和推进首席研究员（PI）的研究议程，该伙伴关系旨在通过建立STEM生态系统来解决弗吉尼亚三城地区（彼得堡、霍普韦尔和殖民地高地）青年对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）兴趣和态度的减少。通过（重新）投资于处于职业生涯中期的研究人员，美国国家科学基金会的目标是在高学术水平上建立和发展一支更加多样化的科学队伍，他们仍然参与和活跃于前沿研究。该项目的目标是：1)应用前沿分析（潜在分析）和社会网络分析，调查中学年龄的STEM工作；2)使用资产映射来识别三城地区潜在的STEM合作者和利益相关者，他们有兴趣并致力于创建一个全面而强大的学习生态系统；3)基于三个变量评估生态系统的健康和有效性：生产力、持久性和弹性。这些开创性的方法将使PI和合作者能够考虑服务不足的中学青年群体之间的差异；并将允许研究者检查生态系统中STEM合作者和利益相关者之间的质量和关系，并对其进行微调，以提高其有效性和可持续性。该项目将通过推进国家对STEM扫盲、公平、包容和获取的关注来扩展生态系统方法的概念，并将作为其他研究人员的榜样，帮助他们了解STEM分析在为公平的STEM生态系统的创建、实施和可持续性提供信息方面可以发挥的作用。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。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program through cross-directorate Mid-Career Advancement solicitation NSF 21-516 supports scientists and engineers at the Associate Professor rank (or equivalent) to substantively enhance and advance their research program through synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships, typically at an institution other than their home institution. The overall goal of this project is to enhance and advance the research agenda of the principal investigator (PI) through a mutually beneficial mentoring partnership that seeks to address the decrease in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) interest and attitudes of youth in the Tri-City area of Virginia (Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights) by building a STEM ecosystem. By (re)-investing in mid-career investigators, NSF aims to enable and grow a more diverse scientific workforce at high academic ranks, who remain engaged and active in cutting-edge research.The objectives of the project are to: 1) apply cutting edge profiling analyses (Latent Profile Analysis) and Social Network Analysis, to investigate middle school age STEM efforts; 2) use asset mapping to identify potential STEM collaborators and stakeholders in the Tri City area, interested in, and committed to creating a comprehensive and robust learning ecosystem, and 3) assess the ecosystem’s health and effectiveness based on three variables: Productivity, Durability, and Resilience. These groundbreaking methodologies will enable the PI and collaborators to consider variability among groups of underserved middle school-aged youth; and will allow the investigator to examine the qualities in, and relationships between STEM collaborators and stakeholders in an ecosystem, and to fine-tune these in order to improve its efficacy and sustainability. This project will expand the notion of ecosystem approaches by advancing knowledge about national concerns regarding STEM literacy, equity, inclusion, and access, and will serve as a model to other researchers seeking to understand the role that STEM profiling can play in informing the creation, implementation, and sustainability of equitable STEM ecosystems.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.