Improving Industry Based Skills in Environmental Studies At a Community College

纽约哈德逊河谷对训练有素的STEM毕业生的需求日益增长，特别是需要满足纽约市环境保护部（NYC DEP）的劳动力需求，纽约市环境保护部是该地区最大的雇主之一。纽约市环境保护局负责管理一个由三个水库组成的系统，该系统从卡茨基尔-阿尔斯特县和特拉华州的水库为850多万人提供清洁、未经过滤的饮用水。预计到2026年，供水局目前预算的1,044名雇员中约有46%将有资格退休。此外，阿尔斯特县是美国第一个采用绿色新政的县，旨在减缓气候变化，并采取环境可持续发展的行动，重点放在教育和职业培训上，以装备未来的劳动力。创造劳动力准备技术人员来满足这些需求是SUNY阿尔斯特大学环境研究项目和基于行业的本科成功技能（IBSUS）项目的目标。IBSUS将满足日益增长的行业对环境领域技术人员的需求，并帮助培养具有研究解决问题心态的技术人员。该项目将满足纽约哈德逊河谷地区对熟练STEM毕业生日益增长的需求，解决毕业生与行业期望之间求职者的硬/软技能差距，并加强对STEM中代表性不足群体的招聘，重点是女性。IBSUS项目将利用校园服务、行业合作伙伴和更大的ATE社区来创建一套将对学生、教师和更大的校园社区产生持续影响的项目可交付成果。这种资源的组合有望提高学生的成功，并最终更好地为学生进入劳动力市场做好准备。该项目将通过三套以课程为基础的本科研究体验（CUREs）形式的应用学习活动，提高纽约州立大学阿尔斯特分校环境研究项目的学生保留率和职业准备，旨在引入和利用技术和技术来识别和解决环境问题，培养协作环境，并帮助学生培养有效的沟通技巧。IBSUS项目团队将与纽约市DEP合作，简化普通生物学II的实验课程，强调在加强和进一步检查优先讲座主题方面的应用学习，以引入/加强硬技能和能力。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

New York’s Hudson Valley is experiencing a growing demand for well-trained STEM graduates, with a particular need to meet the workforce demands of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP), one of the area’s largest employers. The NYC DEP oversees a three-reservoir system that provides more than 8.5 million people with clean, unfiltered, drinking water from Catskill-Ulster County and Delaware reservoirs. Projections estimate that approximately 46% of the 1,044 employees currently budgeted for in the Bureau of Water Supply division will be eligible for retirement by 2026. Ulster County, additionally, is the first county in the United States to adopt a Green New Deal to mitigate climate change and practice environmentally sustainable actions with an emphasis placed on education and job training to equip the future workforce. Creating workforce ready technicians to meet these needs is the goal of SUNY Ulster’s Environmental Studies program and the Industry-Based Skills for Undergraduate Success (IBSUS) project. IBSUS will satisfy the growing industry need for technicians in the environmental field and help produce technicians with a research problem solving mentality. The project will satisfy the growing demand for skilled STEM graduates in the Hudson Valley, NY region, address the hard/soft skills gap in job applicants between graduates and industry expectations, and enhance recruitment of underrepresented groups in STEM, with an emphasis on females.The IBSUS project will leverage on-campus services, industry partners, and the larger ATE community to create a set of project deliverables that will have an ongoing impact on students, faculty, and the greater campus community. This combination of resources is expected to improve student success and ultimately better prepare students to enter the workforce. The project will improve student retention and career readiness in the SUNY Ulster Environmental Studies program through three sets of applied learning activities in the form of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) designed to introduce and utilize techniques and technology to identify and solve environmental problems, foster a collaborative environment, and help students develop effective communication skills. The IBSUS Project Team will streamline the General Biology II lab curriculum in collaboration with the NYC DEP to emphasize applied learning in the reinforcement and further examination of prioritized lecture topics to introduce/reinforce hard skills and competencies. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.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.