Workshop: Reducing Cultural Barriers to STEM for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, a collaborative proposal.

该项目将支持将于2017年7月17日至18日在关岛举办的为期两天的研讨会，讨论如何减少对夏威夷土著和太平洋岛民(NHPI)全面参与STEM构成挑战的文化障碍。参加研讨会的将是美国太平洋岛国美属萨摩亚、关岛、北马里亚纳群岛联邦和自由联盟国家(COFA)的社区领袖、教职员工和学校教师。这次研讨会遵循了2016年举行的前一次研讨会的建议，当时讨论了阻碍NHPI学生从事STEM职业的各种障碍。在该讲习班上出现的主要问题之一是，存在着强烈的文化习俗，这可能被视为青年学生从事STEM职业的障碍。目前，海平面上升带来了迫在眉睫的风险，对一些岛屿的家园、农业和持续居住造成了威胁。因此，有一种强烈的愿望，即培养具有应对威胁的专业知识的本地NH和PI人才。研讨会将导致对NHPI面临的问题进行积极讨论，并制定计划以解决参加STEM的障碍。预计当当地态度发生变化，包括认识到对具有STEM文化的公民的迫切需求，以及一些岛屿学校的课程和学术结构发生变化时，会有更多的学生倾向于攻读STEM学位。研讨会的成果将包括一份书面文件/报告，该文件/报告将向公众公布。在STEM领域增加夏威夷和太平洋土著岛民的数量，将使这一群体能够积极参与设计解决岛民因气候变化而面临的许多问题的办法。拟议中的研讨会将为太平洋两岸的一群公民、教职员工提供潜在的解决方案，以便能够吸引更多人才进入STEM。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会生物科学局生物基础设施部的支持。

This project will support a two-day workshop to be convened in Guam, on July 17-18, 2017, to discuss ways to mitigate cultural barriers that challenge the full participation by Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) in STEM. Participating in the workshop will be community leaders, faculty and teachers from schools in the US Pacific Island territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Compact-of-Free-Association countries (CoFA).This workshop follows the recommendations from a prior workshop, held in 2016, that discussed various barriers that prevent NHPI students from pursuing a STEM career. One of the main issues that surfaced at that workshop was the presence of strong cultural practices that could be seen as a barrier for young students to pursue a STEM career. Currently, there is an imminent risk presented by rising sea levels that have resulted in threats to homes, agriculture and continued residence in some of the islands. Therefore, there is a strong desire to grow native NH and PI talent who have the expertise to address the threats. The workshop will result in active discussions of the issues facing NHPI, and the creation of plans to address the barriers to STEM participation. It is anticipated that when changes in local attitudes, including understanding for the pressing need for STEM-literate citizens, and in the curricula and academic structure of some of the island schools are made, more students would be inclined to pursue STEM degrees. An outcome of this workshop will include a written document/report that will be made publicly available. Increasing the number Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in STEM fields will allow this group to actively engage in devising solutions to the many problems faced by the islanders due to changing climate. The proposed workshop will provide a group of citizens, faculty and staff at schools and colleges across the Pacific with potential solutions to be able to attract more talent into STEM. This project is supported by the Division of Biological Infrastructure in the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences.