NRT-IGE: Team Science Training for Coastal Ocean & Estuarine STEM Graduate Students

College Of William & Mary Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Gloucester Point VA

Investigators

Abstract

Solving today's most challenging societal problems requires innovative, integrated breakthroughs and novel solutions that transcend individual disciplines, reaching a deeper level of knowledge integration. However, achieving such integration through collaborative team science (research conducted by more than one discipline in an interdependent manner) has proven elusive due in large part to deficiencies in key professional, teamwork, and leadership skills among the team members. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to the College of William & Mary's (W&M) Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) seeks to address these deficiencies by designing and testing team science professional development training for coastal ocean and estuarine STEM graduate students. The project will be implemented through the Virginia Sea Grant College, which is composed of VIMS/W&M, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and George Mason, James Madison, Old Dominion, and Virginia Commonwealth Universities. The project assembles a multi-disciplinary team of faculty facilitators to guide a class of diverse doctoral and master's students from the natural and physical coastal, marine and environmental sciences, engineering, design, and social and economic sciences. An innovative workshop series trains students in the principles of team science, collaborative leadership, and effective self-reflective tools and strategies to improve teamwork. Working closely with coastal community partners (e.g., municipalities, NGOs), this community-based climate-resilience project enables students to practice team science research and use reflective practices to improve their competencies in teamwork. Assessment of the reflective practices (using team reflexivity, Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness, and expertise coordination measures) will improve understanding of how to nurture self-reflective competencies in the short-term and build capacity for team science research that will enhance students' careers over the long term. The lesson plans, training modules, and implementation strategies will be compiled into an online toolkit and shared broadly through professional societies of graduate school deans, multiple conference presentations, and workshops, and extended through alumni networks at the participating institutions for peer mentoring and executive coaching. Further, collaboration with the Virginia Council of Graduate Schools will help to enhance recruitment of diverse participants, reinforce learning with workshop alumni, promote global dissemination, and institutionalize benefits into existing courses and degree programs. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.