Sustainability and Stewardship in Alaska (SSA)

在学习和发展的各个阶段，国家对有意义和有效的科学教育的需求一直是显而易见的。人类面临的最紧迫的挑战之一是了解耦合的人类和自然系统如何相互作用，以增强或削弱区域和全球生态系统，经济和文化的恢复力。该项目的目标是融合社会科学和自然科学知识，以促进对人类活动和环境变化模式的更好理解，解决高纬度地区特有的关键环境问题和机遇，并开发构建和分析这些问题的新方法。这个本科生试点项目，阿拉斯加的可持续发展和管理（SSA），与NSF的综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）项目平行组织，但重点放在本科教育和研究上。SSA建立在阿拉斯加大学IGERT项目的概念和大部分操作结构的基础上，区域恢复和适应（RR&amp；A）。该项目的重点是在北极圈可持续性和管理的更广泛背景下，对阿拉斯加全球变化对环境、社会和文化的影响进行调查。为了充分利用UAF的IGERT项目机构基础的优势，SSA与RR&amp；A项目结构和人员保持密切的联系和互动。SSA包括三门高级本科课程，两个暑假的实地研究，以及uaf资助的研究实习。SSA学生与IGERT研究生一起参加研讨会、讲习班和指导计划。SSA学生还在UAF的相关大学预科教育暑期项目中指导学生。该计划代表了一个探索性版本的本科课程，如果完全具体化，将是一个新的学位课程。在为期两年的资助期内，全面落实公共福利金的要求和可行性是一项重要的研究课题。更广泛的影响阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校（UAF）科学系保留阿拉斯加土著学生的情况并不典型。然而，UAF的阿拉斯加原住民和农村发展部（dand）在留住阿拉斯加原住民学生方面有着最好的记录。SSA与DANRD密切合作。此外，国家科学基金会资助的阿拉斯加土著科学与工程项目（ANSEP）的PI和协调员，以及美国印第安人科学与工程学会（AISES）的当地分会合作，让阿拉斯加土著学生参与该项目。后一个项目为阿拉斯加大学系统理科专业的一群阿拉斯加土著学生提供导师、社交聚会和同伴指导。SSA与阿拉斯加州的全球项目学校、长期生态研究项目以及利用西方科学和本土观察的全球变化教育项目建立了伙伴关系。这些K-12项目的教育和推广PI是UAF的一名教员，他正在与SSA合作，为这些项目的本科生和预科学生提供互利。通过积极参与跨学科研究的本科生的参与，这种伙伴关系加强并丰富了这些项目——这些研究与学生们在他们优秀的、基于科学教育标准的项目中所做的事情直接相关。

0331261Gerlach The national need for meaningful and effective science education at all stages of learning and development has long been evident. One of the most urgent challenges facing humanity is to understand how coupled human and natural systems interact to enhance or erode the resilience of regional and global ecosystems, economies, and cultures. The goals of this project are to merge social and natural science knowledge to foster a better understanding of patterns of human activity and environmental change, to address key environmental problems and opportunities unique to high latitudes, and to develop new methods for framing and analyzing them. Intellectual MeritThis undergraduate pilot program, Sustainability and Stewardship in Alaska (SSA), is organized along lines parallel to NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program but focused on undergraduate education and research. SSA builds upon the concepts and much of the operational structure of the University of Alaska's IGERT program, Regional Resilience and Adaptation (RR&A). The project focus is on investigations of environmental, social and cultural impacts of global change in Alaska within the broader context of sustainability and stewardship in the circumpolar North. To leverage the strengths of the IGERT program's institutional foundation at UAF, SSA maintains close connections and interactions with the RR&A program structure and personnel. SSA includes a set of three advanced undergraduate courses, two summers of field research, and UAF-funded research internships. SSA students join IGERT graduate students for a program of seminars, workshops, and mentoring. SSA students also mentor students in related precollege education summer programs at UAF. The program represents an exploratory version of an undergraduate program that, if fully embodied, would be a new degree program. The requirements and feasibility of SSA's full embodiment is a key subject of investigation during the two-year grant period.Broader ImpactsThe retention of Alaska Native students in the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF) science departments is not exemplary. However, UAF's Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development (DANRD) has the best record of retention of Alaska Native students on campus. SSA works in close association with DANRD. In addition, the PI and coordinator of the NSF-funded Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), as well as the local chapter of American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) collaborates to involve Alaska Native students in the project. The latter programs provide tutors, social gatherings, and peer mentoring to a cohort of Alaska Native students majoring in science in the University of Alaska system. SSA has established partnerships with Alaska's Globe program schools, Schoolyard LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) project, and the Global Change Education Using Western Science and Native Observations program. The education and outreach PI of these K-12 programs, a UAF faculty member, is working with SSA to the mutual advantage of the undergraduate and precollege students in these programs. The partnership reinforces and enriches these programs with the participation of undergraduates who are actively involved in interdisciplinary research - research that is directly related to what the school children are doing in their excellent, science education standards-based programs.