Creating a Sustainable Educational Pipeline for the Controlled Environment Agriculture Workforce through a Remote Dual-Credit High School to College Model

通过远程双学分高中到大学模式为受控环境农业劳动力创建可持续的教育渠道

• 批准号: 2301183
• 负责人: Richard Shultz
• 金额: $ 33.04万
• 依托单位: Santa Fe Community College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301183&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Creating; Sustainable; Educational; Pipeline; Controlled

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), popularly knows as indoor agriculture is rapidly becoming a widely accepted technology to improve food security, food safety, and economic development in rural communities. New Mexico is ideal for CEA with more than 300 days of sun each year, inexpensive land, and growing demand for fresh locally grown produce. Northern New Mexico is a region with historical agricultural Hispanic and Native American communities who often lack access to the educational resources necessary to develop the technical CEA workforce. Thus, the demand for CEA technicians in the region presents an opportunity for economic growth and food security in these rural areas. This 3-year project at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) will train 18 teachers at 9 rural high schools to provide 180 underserved students with dual-credit courses in the first-year curriculum of the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in CEA. The project significantly expands the ability for schools across New Mexico to train a regional CEA workforce and creates a pipeline for students to enter SFCC and earn their A.A.S. degree in reduced time. Remote instructional technologies coupled with on-site, hands-on replicated aquaponics systems provide teachers and students with blended learning opportunities in rural high schools. A novel online network will connect students and teachers with CEA industry and academic professionals whom they would not likely have opportunities to interact with through a conventional high school education. An academic pipeline, including a robust internship program, will ensure that students who complete their SFCC CEA degree requirements are ready to enter the workforce. This project will meet the technical workforce needs of the industry through integrated education and outreach efforts. In addition it will address the opportunity to increase the number of qualified dual-credit CEA instructors through a summer program for high school teachers at the SFCC campus. Three high schools from underserved communities will each be invited to send two STEM teachers to participate in an intensive week-long summer workshop to learn the introductory CEA college curriculum. The teachers will be prepared to deliver two CEA dual-credit courses annually. Each school will receive a replicated turn-key classroom aquaponics system for hands-on practical instruction complete with sensors for remote monitoring. The first academic year after each cohort of teachers completes the summer workshop the students will participate in hands-on learning with their aquaponics system in classes co-taught by the high school teacher and SFCC faculty. In subsequent years participating high school teachers will be prepared to teach the dual-credit CEA curriculum independently. The teachers will be mentored weekly by SFCC faculty and staff throughout the three years of the project. Student internships and summer research experiences will reinforce the curriculum and develop workplace skills. The project is unique in providing twenty-first century agricultural education and networking opportunities to largely underserved rural communities. The project will increase the number of dual-credit classes available in local high schools and engage the local community in food sovereignty issues while creating a sustainable workforce in underserved communities. 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.

受控环境农业（CEA）普遍知道，因为室内农业正在迅速成为一项广泛接受的技术，以改善农村社区的粮食安全，食品安全和经济发展。新墨西哥州是CEA的理想选择，每年有超过300天的阳光，廉价的土地以及对新鲜当地种植农产品的需求不断增长。新墨西哥州北部是一个拥有历史农业西班牙裔和美洲原住民社区的地区，他们通常无法获得发展技术CEA劳动力所需的教育资源。因此，该地区对CEA技术人员的需求为这些农村地区的经济增长和粮食安全提供了机会。这项为期3年的圣达菲社区学院（SFCC）将在9个农村高中培训18名教师，为180名服务不足的学生提供应用科学学士学位（A.A.S.）学位的第一年课程的双学分课程。该项目大大扩大了新墨西哥州的学校培训区域CEA劳动力的能力，并为学生创建了进入SFCC并赢得其A.A.S.的管道。减少时间的学位。远程教学技术，再加上现场，动手复制的水培技术为教师和学生提供农村高中的混合学习机会。一个新颖的在线网络将将学生和老师与CEA行业和学术专业人士联系起来，他们可能没有机会通过传统的高中教育与他们互动。包括强大的实习计划在内的学术管道将确保完成其SFCC CEA学位要求的学生准备进入劳动力。该项目将通过综合教育和推广工作来满足行业的技术劳动力需求。此外，它将解决通过SFCC校园的高中教师的夏季计划来增加合格的双学分CEA教练数量的机会。来自服务不足社区的三所高中将被邀请派两名STEM老师参加一个为期一周的夏季研讨会，以学习入门CEA College College课程。老师将准备每年提供两项CEA双学课程。每所学校都会收到一个复制的交钥匙教室水培技术，用于动手实践指导，并配有用于远程监控的传感器。每位教师队列完成夏季研讨会后的第一学年，学生将在高中老师和SFCC教师共同任教的课堂上与他们的水培技术一起参加动手学习。 在随后的几年中，参加高中教师将准备独立教授双学分CEA课程。在项目的三年中，SFCC教师和教职员工每周都会为教师提供指导。学生实习和夏季研究经验将增强课程并发展工作场所技能。该项目在为在很大程度上服务不足的农村社区提供二十一世纪的农业教育和网络机会方面是独一无二的。该项目将增加当地高中可用的双学分课程的数量，并在当地社区参与食品主权问题，同时在服务不足的社区创造可持续的劳动力。该项目由先进的技术教育计划资助，该计划的重点是推动国家经济的高级技术领域的技术人员的教育。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准的评估来通过评估来支持的。