PFI: Developing Infrastructure for Innovation in Downeast Maine: Using Place- and Inquiry-Based Marine Science Education to Build a K-12 STEM Pipeline

这个创新合作伙伴关系（PFI）项目--缅因州大学马奇亚斯分校（0227729）和华盛顿县社区学院（WCCC）（加莱，ME）之间的第三类（A：C）合作伙伴关系--建立在以前的PFI奖的基础上，该奖项建立了大学和当地海洋资源之间的伙伴关系。 该项目通过增加人力资源能力，将该伙伴关系中建立的内容提升到一个新的水平？学生和老师？与缅因州的海洋环境的基于地点和探究的课程密不可分，该课程可以在新的物理基础设施中实施创新，一个最先进的湿/干海洋教育中心/教室。 这一增加将发生在同一地块的财产，购买作为早期项目的结果，这是家里的Downeast应用海洋研究和教育研究所和外地站的缅因州大学在马奇亚斯。 在这方面，将增加学生参与指导、动手、调查的项目，这些项目利用海洋环境作为工具，加强课堂上的应用海洋研究和教育，这种参与将进一步反映在学生身上？对科学的兴趣和信心是社区福祉的关键。 目前，推动缅因州东北部沿海经济的经济引擎大部分与健康和丰富的海洋资源（如龙虾、软壳蛤、海胆、扇贝、贻贝、海洋蠕虫、底栖鱼）有关。 主要研究员和伙伴关系组织的其他成员已经与渔民，当地管理委员会，缅因州海洋资源部和当地政治家合作了20多年，以提高他们对这些资源的生态知识，以便他们能够帮助更好地管理它们。如果没有健康的渔业，东北部的缅因州？美国的沿海社区将成为鬼城。我们的愿景是建立一个由这些健康和丰富的海洋资源推动的沿海经济，这些资源是野生渔业和养殖渔业的一部分。为了实现这一愿景，需要将新的创新思维与几代人以来一直使用的传统和基本方法相结合。事实上，将继续努力利用养殖生物体加强渔业，并创造新的养殖渔业（蛤、牡蛎、扇贝，也许还有龙虾），同时还将继续开展应用研究工作，以增加对具有商业价值的海洋物种野生种群丰度的时空趋势的了解。 该项目非常符合并支持这一长期愿景，因为它关注海洋环境、渔业和在海洋环境中从事贸易的人。 具体而言，该项目侧重于学生及其教师生活的海洋环境以及该环境健康的重要性。目前，这一重点尚未被带到K-16教育。 将要建立的基础设施和课程将刺激一些学生变得更加好奇，并最终将这种好奇心带到STEM领域。 提供这种教育机会将导致在应用海洋研究，教育和技术转让的增加，在downneast和沿海缅因州，这将导致由沿海社区，行业和企业家的需求和愿望所提示的产品和工艺的商业化。 项目开始时的合作伙伴是学术机构：缅因州马奇亚斯大学（牵头机构）;华盛顿县社区学院;缅因州大学海洋赠款学院方案;缅因州大学奥罗诺;学校联盟#103;和Moosabec社区学区;以及私营部门组织：Downeast应用海洋研究和教育研究所。

This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project--a Type III (A: C) partnership between University of Maine at Machias, an NSF PFI graduate (0227729), and Washington County Community College (WCCC) (Calais, ME)--builds upon the previous PFI award which developed a partnership between university and local marine-resources. This project takes what was built in that partnership to the next level by adding human resource capacity?students and teachers?to be inextricably connected to a place- and inquiry-based curriculum for the marine environment of downeast Maine that can be implemented in a new physical infrastructure for innovation, a state-of-the-art wet/dry marine education center/classroom. This addition will occur on the same parcel of property, purchased as a result of the earlier project, which is home to the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education and a field station for the University of Maine at Machias. In this context, student involvement in mentored, hands-on, inquiry-based projects that use the marine environment as a tool to enhance applied marine research and education in the classroom will be increased, and that involvement will be further reflected in students? interest and confidence in science as a key to the well being of their community. At present, much of the economic engine that drives the downeast Maine coastal economy is tied to healthy and abundant marine resources (such as lobsters, soft-shell clams, sea urchins, sea scallops, mussels, marine worms, ground fish). The Principal Investigator and various other members of the partnership organizations have worked for over 20 years with fishermen, local stewardship committees, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and local politicians to improve their knowledge of the ecology of these resources so that they can help to better manage them. Without healthy fisheries, downeast Maine?s coastal communities would become ghost towns. The vision is of a coastal economy that is fueled by these healthy and abundant marine resources that are part of both wild and culture fisheries. To achieve this vision requires combining new, innovative thinking with the traditional and fundamental approaches that have been used for generations. Indeed, efforts to enhance fisheries using cultured organisms and create new culture fisheries (clams, oysters, scallops, and perhaps lobsters) will continue as will applied research efforts that increase knowledge about spatial and temporal trends in the abundance of wild populations of commercially valuable marine species. This project fits nicely with and supports this long-term vision because it focuses attention on the marine environment, the fisheries, and the people who ply their trade in the marine environment. Specifically, this project focuses on the marine environment that students and their teachers live in and the importance of the health of that environment. Heretofore, this focus has not been brought to K-16 education. The infrastructure and the curriculum that will be built will stimulate some students to become more inquisitive and, eventually, to carry this level of inquisitiveness into STEM fields. Providing this educational opportunity will result in an increase in applied marine research, education, and technology transfer in downeast and coastal Maine which will lead to the commercialization of products and processes prompted by the needs and wishes of coastal communities, industries, and entrepreneurs. Partners at the inception of the project are Academic Institutions: University of Maine at Machias (lead institution); Washington County Community College; University of Maine Sea Grant College Program, University of Maine Orono; School Union #103; and the Moosabec Community School District; and Private Sector Organization: Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education.