Planning: FIRE-PLAN:Convergent Pyroscapes: Catalyzing Innovative and Inclusive Wildland Fire Science and Education in Western North Carolina

原住民在科学、工程和数学(STEM)领域的代表性明显不足。这对公平提出了一个问题，并削弱了土著世界观和用于解决问题的技术的贡献。造成日益严重的野地火灾和森林生态系统服务损失的因素之一是失去了美洲原住民的火灾管理做法。土著领导的森林管理可以帮助应对这一挑战，同时解决以下三个因素：火灾科学、管理和教育中现有的观念缩小了森林管理中的决策空间；联邦管理下的森林状况发生变化，使恢复土著森林价值观变得更加困难；土著青年接受STEM教育的障碍。该项目将支持切诺基印第安人东部地带、佐治亚大学、美国林业局和STEM教育研究组织TERC之间新出现的合作伙伴关系，将土著和西方科学知识整合到北卡罗来纳州西部的土著STEM教育和荒地火灾科学、培训和实践中。作为对国家健康、福利和繁荣的服务，该项目的科学进步将增加森林健康并降低野火风险，其课程创新将促进社会公平以及未来土著科学家的代表性和职业潜力。受控火灾可以成为缓解迅速变化的森林景观的关键工具。因此，从本土和西方消防科学、技术和管理的深度融合来探讨解决方案是至关重要的。该项目将开发一种知识融合的创新方法，目的是将本地消防管理、知识、抱负和技术纳入STEM教育和规定的消防科学和管理。为实现这一目标，该项目将利用土著主导的、顺应文化需要的讲习班和协作共同设计方法，以：扩大和建立公平的伙伴关系；分享和综合基础知识和观点；共同为第二阶段提案制定强有力的计划。由此产生的工作计划将有三个最终目标：(1)揭示和消除目前制约西方火灾科学并阻碍土著学生参与STEM的概念盲点；(2)产生包容各方的创新火灾科学进展，扩大火灾模拟的范围和预测能力，例如通过模拟超出当前火灾制度下经验观察到的条件并以土著科学和技术为基础的情景；以及(3)通过在趋同的STEM课程中整合土著和西方科学知识，加强土著青年参与林业和自然资源管理的机会和职业道路。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持的项目旨在加深对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解，有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。本规划项目还由推进非正式STEM学习方案资助，该方案支持以下项目：(A)促进关于STEM非正式学习在公平和归属STEM中的作用的研究和实践；(B)促进STEM个人和教育方面的成功；(C)促进公众参与科学发现；(D)培养对STEM职业的兴趣；(E)为有效的STEM非正式学习创造和加强理论和经验基础；(F)提高社区活力；和/或(G)加强科学交流以及公众对STEM和STEM过程的参与和了解。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。

Native people are significantly underrepresented in science, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This poses a problem for equity, and it diminishes the contribution of Native worldviews and technologies used for problem-solving. One of the contributing factors to increasingly severe wildland fires and loss of forest ecosystem services has been the loss of Native American fire management practices. Indigenous-led fire stewardship can assist with this challenge while addressing the following three factors: existing conceptions within fire science, management and education that narrow the decision space within forest management; shifts in forest conditions under federal management that make it more difficult to restore Native forest values; and barriers to STEM education among Native youth. This project will support a newly emerging partnership between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the University of Georgia, the U.S. Forest Service, and TERC, a STEM education research organization, to integrate Native and Western scientific knowledge into both Native STEM education and wildland fire science, training and practice in western North Carolina. As services to the nation's health, welfare, and prosperity, this project's scientific advances will increase forest health and reduce wildfire risk, and its curricular innovations will promote social equity and the representation and career potential of future Native scientists. Managed fires can be a critical tool to mitigate rapidly shifting landscape of forests . Approaching the solution from a deep convergence of Native and Western fire science, technology and management is therefore critical. This project will develop an innovative approach to that knowledge convergence, with an aim of incorporating Native fire management, knowledge, aspirations and technologies into STEM education and prescribed fire science and management. To achieve that, the project will use Indigenous-led, culturally responsive facilitated workshops and collaborative co-design methodologies to: broaden and build equitable partnerships; share and synthesize foundational knowledge and perspectives; and co-develop robust plans for a Phase 2 proposal. The resulting work plan will have three ultimate goals: (1) to reveal and dismantle the conceptual blinders that currently constrain Western fire science and hinder Native students' STEM engagement; (2) to generate innovative, inclusive fire science advances that expand the scope and predictive capacity of fire modeling, e.g. by simulating scenarios that both extend beyond conditions observed empirically under current fire regimes, and are based on Native science and technology; and (3) to enhance the participation of and career pathways for Native youth in forestry and natural resource management by integrating Native and Western scientific knowledge in convergent STEM curricula. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This planning project is also funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.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.