Planning: FIRE-PLAN:Convergent Pyroscapes: Catalyzing Innovative and Inclusive Wildland Fire Science and Education in Western North Carolina

原住民在科学、工程和数学（STEM）领域的代表性明显不足。这给公平带来了一个问题，它削弱了本土世界观和用于解决问题的技术的贡献。造成日益严重的野火和森林生态系统服务丧失的因素之一是美洲原住民火灾管理方法的丧失。土著领导的火灾管理可以帮助应对这一挑战，同时解决以下三个因素：火灾科学、管理和教育中的现有观念，这些观念缩小了森林管理中的决策空间；联邦管理下的森林状况发生变化，使恢复原始森林价值变得更加困难；以及土著青年接受STEM教育的障碍。该项目将支持东部切罗基印第安人部落、佐治亚大学、美国林务局和TERC（一个STEM教育研究组织）之间新出现的伙伴关系，将土著和西部的科学知识整合到北卡罗来纳州西部的土著STEM教育和野火科学、培训和实践中。作为对国家健康、福利和繁荣的服务，该项目的科学进步将提高森林健康，减少野火风险，其课程创新将促进社会公平，并促进未来土著科学家的代表性和职业潜力。管理火灾可以成为缓解森林景观快速变化的关键工具。因此，从本土和西方消防科学、技术和管理的深度融合中寻求解决方案至关重要。该项目将开发一种创新的方法来实现知识融合，目的是将当地的消防管理、知识、愿望和技术纳入STEM教育和规定的消防科学和管理。为实现这一目标，该项目将利用土著主导的、文化响应促进的讲习班和协作式共同设计方法：扩大和建立公平的伙伴关系；分享和综合基础知识和观点；共同为第二阶段提案制定强有力的计划。由此产生的工作计划将有三个最终目标：(1)揭示和拆除目前限制西方消防科学和阻碍本土学生参与STEM的概念障碍；(2)创造创新的、包容性的火灾科学进步，扩大火灾建模的范围和预测能力，例如，通过模拟超出当前火灾制度下经验观察到的条件的情景，并基于本地科学和技术；(3)通过将土著和西方科学知识整合到STEM课程中，提高土著青年在林业和自然资源管理方面的参与度和职业发展途径。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣的实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解。该规划项目也由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持以下项目：(a)促进研究和实践，考虑非正式STEM学习在STEM公平和归属方面的作用；(b)促进个人和教育在STEM方面的成功；(c)促进公众参与科学发现；(d)培养对STEM职业的兴趣；(e)为有效的非正式STEM学习创造和加强理论和经验基础；(f)改善社区活力；及/或(g)加强科学传播和公众对STEM和STEM过程的参与和理解。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。

Native people are significantly underrepresented in science, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This poses a problem for equity, and it diminishes the contribution of Native worldviews and technologies used for problem-solving. One of the contributing factors to increasingly severe wildland fires and loss of forest ecosystem services has been the loss of Native American fire management practices. Indigenous-led fire stewardship can assist with this challenge while addressing the following three factors: existing conceptions within fire science, management and education that narrow the decision space within forest management; shifts in forest conditions under federal management that make it more difficult to restore Native forest values; and barriers to STEM education among Native youth. This project will support a newly emerging partnership between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the University of Georgia, the U.S. Forest Service, and TERC, a STEM education research organization, to integrate Native and Western scientific knowledge into both Native STEM education and wildland fire science, training and practice in western North Carolina. As services to the nation's health, welfare, and prosperity, this project's scientific advances will increase forest health and reduce wildfire risk, and its curricular innovations will promote social equity and the representation and career potential of future Native scientists. Managed fires can be a critical tool to mitigate rapidly shifting landscape of forests . Approaching the solution from a deep convergence of Native and Western fire science, technology and management is therefore critical. This project will develop an innovative approach to that knowledge convergence, with an aim of incorporating Native fire management, knowledge, aspirations and technologies into STEM education and prescribed fire science and management. To achieve that, the project will use Indigenous-led, culturally responsive facilitated workshops and collaborative co-design methodologies to: broaden and build equitable partnerships; share and synthesize foundational knowledge and perspectives; and co-develop robust plans for a Phase 2 proposal. The resulting work plan will have three ultimate goals: (1) to reveal and dismantle the conceptual blinders that currently constrain Western fire science and hinder Native students' STEM engagement; (2) to generate innovative, inclusive fire science advances that expand the scope and predictive capacity of fire modeling, e.g. by simulating scenarios that both extend beyond conditions observed empirically under current fire regimes, and are based on Native science and technology; and (3) to enhance the participation of and career pathways for Native youth in forestry and natural resource management by integrating Native and Western scientific knowledge in convergent STEM curricula. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This planning project is also funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.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.