NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: EA3 - Expanding Access to Alabama Agriscience

扩大获得亚拉巴马农业科学（EA 3）这个NSF包括规划赠款是由NSF包容在工程和科学（NSF包括），一个全面的国家倡议，以加强美国的社区的学习者在发现和创新的领导，重点是多样性，包容性和扩大参与STEM的规模。这项规划补助金的目标是建立利益相关者的伙伴关系，以确定在整个亚拉巴马扩大参与农业相关职业的障碍和机会。现代农业面临的巨大挑战是，在可耕地不断减少和气候变化加剧的情况下，我们如何继续养活地球上不断增长的人口。一个解决办法是使用基因组工具来识别和整合在投入减少和环境不确定的情况下增加产量的遗传变化。预计使用这些工具的劳动力需求增长速度将快于全国平均水平，但与其他STEM领域一样，女性和少数民族目前在这些农业相关职业中的代表性不足。亚拉巴马在历史上缺乏一个共同的愿景，以扩大和编织个人的倡议，资源和专业知识到一个协调的网络，为学习者提供一个通往农业相关的职业生涯的途径。我们的方案丰富，但“协调贫乏”。该提案旨在产生对当前景观的共同认识，深化跨部门关系，并就如何扩大从小学到劳动力的农业科学参与建立共同愿景。规划建议有四个主要目标：（1）让亚拉巴马的农业科学和教育利益相关者参与合作伙伴关系，以建立跨部门的关系，并确定一个共同的愿景，以扩大整个农业科学劳动力的参与（2）确定目前可供亚拉巴马学习者的学生参与，职业探索和劳动力发展的农业科学相关的机会，（3）认识到地理，限制学生获得这些机会的学术、财务和文化障碍，（4）通过修改/扩大现有举措以及制定新举措，培养克服这些障碍的方法。规划过程将利用集体影响的概念，以及NSF包括共同愿景，伙伴关系和目标的协作基础设施要素。EA 3的合作伙伴包括K-12 STEM和职业与技术教育计划，以及校外组织，如美国未来农民，亚拉巴马4-H，男孩和女孩俱乐部以及哈德逊阿尔法生物技术研究所的教育外展团队。来自亚拉巴马A M、奥本和塔斯基吉大学的研究和教学人员，以及来自HudsonAlpha的植物基因组学团队，将科学发现和劳动力发展联系起来。最后，亚拉巴马农民联合会和亚拉巴马推广办事处提供了一个直接连接到国家的农业科学产业。在14个月的时间内，该团队将在亚拉巴马各地举行8次视频会议和5次面对面会议。这些会议的成果将被编织成一个共同愿景的声明和一个综合战略计划，以增加参与亚拉巴马的农业相关的职业生涯。这将产生持久的影响，因为利益相关者使用通过规划过程中获得的知识来开发经验，有效地促进参与和保留整个亚拉巴马农业相关领域的代表性不足的人口。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Expanding Access to Alabama Agriscience (EA3)This NSF INCLUDES planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The goal of this planning grant is to form a partnership of stakeholders to identify barriers and opportunities to broadening participation in agriscience-related careers across Alabama. The great challenge of modern agriculture is how we continue to feed Earth’s growing population in the face of shrinking farmable land and increasing climate change. One solution is to use genomic tools to identify and incorporate genetic changes that increase yields in the face of decreased inputs and uncertain environments. The demand for the workforce to use these tools is projected to grow faster than the national average, but as in other STEM fields, women and ethnic minorities are currently underrepresented in these agriscience-related careers. Alabama has historically lacked a common vision to expand and weave individual initiatives, resources and expertise into a coordinated network that provides learners with a pathway towards agriscience-related careers. We are program-rich but “coordination-poor”. This proposal seeks to generate a shared awareness of the current landscape, deepen cross-sector relationships and build a common vision for how to broaden agriscience participation from elementary school through the workforce. The planning proposal has four key objectives: (1) Engage Alabama’s agriscience and educational stakeholders in a collaborative partnership to build cross-sector relationships and identify a common vision to broaden participation across the agriscience workforce (2) Identify the agriscience-related opportunities for student engagement, career exploration and workforce development that are currently available to Alabama learners, (3) Recognize the geographic, academic, financial and cultural barriers that limit student access to these opportunities, (4) Cultivate approaches to overcome these barriers, through modifying/scaling existing initiatives as well as developing new ones. The planning process will utilize collective impact concepts as well as the NSF INCLUDES collaborative infrastructure elements of Shared Vision, Partnership and Goals and Metrics. EA3 partners includes K-12 STEM and Career and Technical Education programs, as well as out-of-school organizations like Future Farmers of America, Alabama 4-H, the Boys and Girls Club and the Educational Outreach team at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Research and teaching faculty from Alabama A&M, Auburn and Tuskegee universities, together with the plant genomics team from HudsonAlpha, link scientific discovery and workforce development. Lastly, the Alabama Farmers Federation and Alabama Extension offices provide a direct connection to the state’s agriscience industry. Over a 14-month timeframe, this team will assemble for eight videoconferences and five in-person meetings, held across Alabama. The outcomes of these meetings will be woven into a statement of shared vision and an integrated strategic plan for increasing participation in Alabama’s agriscience-related careers. This will have a lasting impact as stakeholders use the knowledge gained through the planning process to develop experiences that effectively boost the participation and retention of underrepresented populations in agriscience-related fields across Alabama.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.