SCC-PG: Preparing the Next-Generation Rural Workforce Through Inclusive and Place-Based Smart and Connected STEM Educational Delivery Models

与大多数农村社区萎缩和老龄化的趋势相反，自20世纪80年代以来，许多中西部农村社区经历了快速的人口增长，因为移民和难民一直在那里流动，以满足肉类和家禽加工等农业部门日益增长的劳动力需求。这些不断发展的中西部社区的学龄居民，主要是美国-出生于低技能工人的孩子，代表了未来STEM工人和企业家的重要未开发人口，他们在美国农村长大，并希望留在美国农村。在有大量移民和难民人口的农村社区，缺乏关于劳动力发展的研究。因此，迫切需要研究各种战略，既培训又留住这些熟练劳动力，使其留在农村社区，因为农村社区的就业机会扩大了（例如，建设最先进的工厂的行业）可以限制技术和创业人才的外流。这项规划补助金的目标是试点新的延展实境（XR）支持的STEM教育交付模式，该模式是与拥有大量低技能工人的农村社区的青年和成年人合作开发的。支持XR的解决方案可以通过增强实践活动，创建在物理世界中可能无法访问的对象和体验的模拟，以及促进学习者参与复杂的现实生活问题，来支持主动和体验式学习。规划研究包括三个主要活动：1）通过研讨会，访谈和焦点小组，与Storm Lake社区合作，确定利益相关者对STEM领域和创业精神的新地方教育课程的需求和愿望; 2）利用研讨会共同设计（设计而不是设计）创新的XR技术交付模式，以满足这些需求; 3）通过调查评估试点项目的成果。这些活动将有助于解决两个研究问题：1）促进农村劳动力发展的包容性和基于地点的教育提供模式如何使拥有大量低技能工人的社区受益？2)哪些支持XR的智能互联技术解决方案将改善拥有大量低技能工人的农村社区的包容性和基于地点的STEM教育交付模式？该项目是爱荷华州州立大学、爱荷华州4-H青年发展和风暴湖社区学区之间的合作项目。风暴湖市（人口10，600）被选为这些试点活动的地点，因为它是一个农村爱荷华州社区，在农工部门雇用了大量低技能劳动力，K-12学生人口中有64%是英语学习者，85%是有色人种学生。规划补助金的结果将使人们对农村社区的教育需求以及基于地点的技术为支持这些教育需求所提供的机会和障碍有新的认识，这是文献中未充分探讨的领域。因此，这项工作与智能互联社区计划保持一致，该计划致力于将社区利益相关者融入智能互联社区项目，共同创建和试点解决方案，这些解决方案直接反映了当前和未来社区的需求，挑战和机遇。该项目还通过NSF改善本科生STEM教育计划获得资助，该计划旨在支持具有更广泛社会影响潜力的项目，包括提高参与STEM教育的学生和教师的多样性，教师的专业发展，以确保采用新的有效的教学技术，满足学生不断变化的需求，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Contrary to trends in most rural communities, which are shrinking and aging, many rural Midwestern communities have experienced rapid population growth since the 1980s, as migrants and refugees have been moving there to meet growing labor demand in the agroindustrial sector such as meat and poultry processing. The school-aged residents of these growing Midwestern communities, who are primarily the U.S.-born children of low-skilled workers, represent a significant untapped population of future STEM workers and entrepreneurs who are growing up in, and want to stay in, rural America. There is a lack of research on workforce development in rural communities with large migrant and refugee populations. Thus, there is a critical need to study strategies to both train, and also keep, this skilled workforce local to rural communities where expanded employment opportunities (e.g., industries building state-of-the-art factories) can limit out-migration of technical and entrepreneurial talent. The goal of this planning grant is to pilot new Extended Reality (XR)-enabled STEM educational delivery models developed in collaboration with youth and adults in rural communities with large numbers of low-skilled workers. XR-enabled solutions can support active and experiential learning by enhancing hands-on activities, creating simulations of objects and experiences that may not be accessible in the physical world, and promoting learners' engagement with complex real-life problems. The planning research consists of three main activities: 1) identify stakeholder needs and aspirations for new place-based educational curricula in STEM fields and entrepreneurship in partnership with the Storm Lake community via workshops, interviews, and focus groups; 2) use workshops to co-design (designing with as opposed to designing for) innovative XR-enabled technology delivery models to meet these needs; and 3) assess the outcomes of the pilot project via surveys. These activities will help address two research questions: 1) How can inclusive and place-based educational delivery models for rural workforce development benefit communities with large numbers of low-skilled workers? 2) Which XR-enabled smart and connected technology solutions will improve inclusive and place-based STEM educational delivery models in a rural community with a large number of low-skilled workers? This project is a partnership between Iowa State University, Iowa 4-H Youth Development, and the Storm Lake Community School District. The City of Storm Lake (pop. 10,600) was chosen as the site for these pilot activities because it is a rural Iowa community with a large low-skilled workforce employed in the agroindustrial sector and a K-12 student population that is 64% English Language Learners and 85% students of color. The results of the planning grant will yield new insights into the educational needs of rural communities, and the opportunities and barriers that place-based technologies can offer for supporting those educational needs, which is an underexplored area in the literature. Thus, this work is aligned with the Smart and Connected Communities program, which endeavors to integrate community stakeholders into smart and connected community projects to co-create and pilot solutions that are directly informed by the needs, challenges, and opportunities of present and future communities. This project is also being funded via the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program, which seeks to support projects that have high potential for broader societal impacts, including improved diversity of students and instructors participating in STEM education, professional development for instructors to ensure adoption of new and effective pedagogical techniques that meet the changing needs of students, and projects that promote institutional partnerships for collaborative research and development.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.