Scaling Implementation of Stem Cell Technical Education: A Collaborative Project

干细胞和干细胞技术为彻底改变我们对疾病发生方式的理解提供了巨大的希望，它们可以用来引导研究人员找到新的有效方法来治疗心脏病、糖尿病、关节炎等疾病。此外，再生医学领域有可能培育出治疗烧伤患者的组织和需要移植的患者的器官。这些新兴的研究和开发领域正在创造对具有专业技能和能力的高素质技术员工的需求，以推进干细胞技术。该项目是麦迪逊地区技术学院（MATC）和旧金山城市学院（CCSF）的合作项目，将在更广泛的生物技术背景下改善和扩大干细胞技术和再生医学的技术教育。除了与行业合作伙伴合作，提供相关的现代大学课程和项目，以教育和培养干细胞技术专业人员外，该项目还将为大学预科教育工作者提供科学和技术课程的引人入胜的材料，以构建从中等教育到高等教育并最终进入高科技劳动力的职业道路。该合作项目将利用MATC和CCSF在事先获得NSF支持的情况下所取得的成功发展和个人努力的经验教训。当前的努力是战略性地建立在这些早期项目所产生的动力和网络的基础上：(1)为扩大的学术受众群体提炼现有材料；(2)为大学水平的课程开发额外的教学模块；(3)创建和推广8-12年级干细胞生物学课程；(4)为教育工作者提供专业发展讲习班，作为传播教材的有效手段，使教育工作者具备适应和实施教材的能力。作为传播工作的一部分，通过培养一个由高中、社区学院和大学教育者组成的网络学习社区，项目的影响将成倍增加，这些教育者将拥有作为该计划一部分创建的产品，并进一步在全国范围内发展和传播干细胞教育。项目的成功及其影响将通过对主要参与者（包括学生、教育工作者和行业合作伙伴）的调查和访谈来评估。衡量标准将包括受课程采用影响的机构数量、学生入学人数、完成和就业人数、雇主对课程内容的认可以及对进入劳动力市场的课程毕业生的满意度。

Stem cells and stem cell technology offer tremendous promise to revolutionize our understanding of how diseases occur, and they can be utilized to lead researchers to new and effective methods to treat medical disorders from heart disease, to diabetes, to arthritis and many more. Further, the field of regenerative medicine has the potential to grow tissue to treat burn victims and organs for patients in need of transplants. These burgeoning areas of research and development are creating a demand for well-qualified technical employees with specialized skills and competencies to advance stem cell technology. This project, a collaborative endeavor between Madison Area Technical College (MATC) and the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), will improve and expand technical education in stem cell technology and regenerative medicine within the broader context of biotechnology. In addition to collaborating with industry partners to provide relevant, modern college curricula and programs to educate and prepare stem cell technology professionals, the project will provide pre-college educators with engaging materials for science and technology courses to construct career pathways that lead from secondary education, to higher education and, ultimately, into the high technology workforce.This collaborative project will leverage successful developments and lessons learned from individual efforts undertaken at MATC and CCSF with prior NSF support. The current endeavor is strategically designed to build on the momentum and networks that these earlier projects generated by (1) refining existing materials for an expanded group of academic audiences; (2) developing additional instructional modules for college-level programs; (3) creating and disseminating stem cell biology curriculum for grades 8-12; and (4) providing professional development workshops for educators as an effective means to disseminate materials so that educators are equipped to adapt and implement them. As part of the dissemination efforts, the project impact will be multiplied by fostering a web-enabled learning community of high school, community college, and university educators who will take ownership of the products created as part of this initiative and further develop and disseminate stem cell education throughout the nation. Success of the project and its impact will be evaluated using surveys and interviews with key participants, including students, educators and industry partners. Metrics will include numbers of institutions affected via adoption of curricula, student enrollments, completion and employment figures and employer approval of curricular content and satisfaction with program graduates who enter the workforce.