GP-IN: Alaska Aquaculture Science Knowledge (ASK)

该项目由既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)计划和IUSE共同资助。GEOPath非正式网络：阿拉斯加水产养殖科学知识(ASK)将加强和维持教育和职业道路，吸引和留住目前在STEM领域代表性不足的阿拉斯加原住民和农村预科学生。ASK将培养水产养殖方面的技能和能力，这对未来几十年养活国家和世界至关重要，对国民经济和劳动力也至关重要。该项目的目标将通过创造一支能够在未来几十年帮助确保粮食安全的劳动力来促进繁荣和福利。该项目将评估将农村和阿拉斯加土著文化纳入实地科学课程并加以验证的战略，提供实际学习经验，并让历史上被STEM排除在外的人群参与进来。这将通过四个目标来实现：1.建立一门以校外鲑鱼孵化场为基础的课程，向高中生介绍水产养殖2.为大学预科学生提供有指导的、动手的研究机会。3.专门为这些学生创建水产养殖和渔业相关领域的招聘会；4.为高中生提供暑期带薪实习机会，在三文鱼孵化场工作。阿拉斯加大学锡特卡东南分校锡特卡声音科学中心Edgecumbe高中、Sitka高中和Pacific High School拥有丰富的合作经验，创建了成功的STEM项目，服务于阿拉斯加原住民和阿拉斯加农村学生的特定需求。这些人口的参与需要纳入和确认文化经验，并强调新的STEM技能和知识如何成为传统土著和农村文化的延伸。面向阿拉斯加原住民和农村低收入学生的三所高中的课程将涵盖广泛的水产养殖内容，包括海洋学、海洋科学、森林生态学、流域生态研究、水产和海洋科学以及孵化技能、鱼类养殖和海产养殖概念。以地点为基础的亲身实践教学将验证农村和阿拉斯加原住民在户外的文化体验，并展示这些体验如何应用于水产养殖。成功参与该计划的学生将获得一个独立的、有指导的研究项目，并获得双学分。

This project is jointly funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program and IUSE. GEOPath Informal Networks: Alaska Aquaculture Science Knowledge (ASK) will strengthen and sustain the educational and career pathways that engage and retain Alaska Native and rural Alaska precollege students who are currently under represented in STEM fields. ASK will build skills and competency in aquaculture which is critical to feeding the nation and world in the coming decades and vital to the national economy and workforce. The goals of the project will advance prosperity and welfare by creating a labor force that can help assure food security in the coming decades. This project will evaluate the strategies of including and validating rural and Alaska Native culture into a field science curriculum, provide hands on learning experiences and engage populations that have historically been excluded in STEM. The project will demonstrate to other coastal communities, biological field stations, and hatcheries in rural areas how a collaboration between industry, school districts and a university or community college, can facilitate student engagement in research and engage the aquaculture industry and universities in recruiting students who have basic geoscience skills. The goal of ASK is to provide aquaculture educational experiences to pre-college rural and Alaska Native students to transition successfully into undergraduate programs or directly into the STEM workforce by demonstrating that their cultural background, worldview and experiences are relevant and valuable to academic study and careers in geosciences. This will be done through four objectives: 1. Institute an off campus, salmon hatchery-based course that introduces upper level high school students to aquaculture 2. Provide mentored, hands-on research opportunities for pre-college students. 3. Create a job fair for aquaculture and fisheries related fields specifically for these students and 4. Offer a paid summer internship for upper level high school students at a working salmon hatchery. The Sitka Sound Science Center, the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Sitka High School and Pacific High School have extensive experience working together and creating successful STEM programs that serve the specific needs of Alaska Natives and rural Alaskan students. The needs of engagement for these populations require inclusion and validation of cultural experiences and an emphasis on how new STEM skills and knowledge can be extensions of traditional Native and rural cultures. The class for three high schools that serve low income, Alaska Native and rural students, will cover a broad range of aquaculture content, including oceanography, marine science, forest ecology, ecological studies of watersheds and aquatic and marine sciences as well as hatchery skills, fish culture and mariculture concepts. Place-based, hands on teaching will validate rural and Alaska Native cultural experiences in the outdoors and demonstrate how those experiences apply to aquaculture. Students who successfully participate in this program will be offered an independent, mentored research project for dual credit. Outcomes of this project will be a clear pathway for rural and Alaska Native high school students into university programs and industry jobs.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.