Southeast community college bioindustrial manufacturing education (SCC-biome) project

This $468,832 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) supports the Southeast Community College Bioindustrial Manufacturing Education (SCC-BIOME) project. The project aims to strengthen partnerships between industry and educators, cultivate interest in bioindustrial manufacturing career pathways, and build capacity for the growing bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem in the Midwest. Key activities include developing and implementing contextualized learning modules to integrate technical skills into science curricula, providing hands-on experiences in bioindustrial processes, and exposing K-12 students to biomanufacturing through STEM camps and family events. This cross-disciplinary approach seeks to enhance students' skills, competencies, and awareness of bioindustrial manufacturing career options. The project runs from August 2024 to July 2027 and the results will be disseminated through regional and national conferences.

Abstract

Current economic trends and national efforts are shifting focus towards more clean and sustainable energy generation and manufacturing processes. This shift has been steadily expanding career opportunities in the bioindustrial manufacturing sector. The need to attract and train skilled workers is especially evident in the midwest, where biomass, including corn, soybeans, and sugar beets, are abundant. To address this regional need, this project aims to strengthen partnerships between industry and educators, cultivate interest in career pathways in manufacturing, and build capacity for the growing bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem in the greater midwest. Project activities seek to expand and enhance program curriculum to integrate applications of scientific concepts, support technical skill-building, and provide career exploration opportunities. The innovative cross-disciplinary curriculum integration approach of this project can serve as a model for crossing academic program boundaries to provide holistic education and training opportunities that meet industry needs and provide new career pathways for two-year college students. This project seeks to develop, implement and assess contextualized learning modules to enhance the skills, competencies, and awareness of bioindustrial manufacturing related career pathways in nebraska and surrounding midwestern states. More specifically, this approach involves the integration of a series of technical skills into science lab curricula to engage students in industrial applications of traditional science concepts that include a fermentation of an industrial product in a microbiology class followed by the purification of the product in a chemistry class. Site visits and video tours of regional industry facilities utilizing these processes will complement the in-class activities. The modules will build entry-level chemical and microbiological handling skills and raise awareness of options for undecided students and academic transfer-track students. The modules will also be adapted for use in grade 6-12 stem camps and will be the basis for activities to expose k-12 students and their families to biomanufacturing during events such as family science night. These curricular and programmatic enhancements will address workforce development needs and provide upskilling opportunities for incumbent workers and pathways for students in technical education programs. Project outcomes will be presented at regional and national conferences. 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.- subawards are not planned for this award.