Identifying Assets and Collaborative Activities to Support Student Success in Environmental Data Science at Minority Serving Institutions

Ronin Institute For Independent Scholarship Incorporated, Montclair NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing capacity in environmental data science through improved access to training and workforce development resources for diverse student populations. Racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States are under-supported and under-represented in data science programs and careers. Multiple challenges, including the affordability, access to new technologies and the lack of educational opportunities for diverse students, have led to a digital divide that demonstrates inequities in access to data, technology and educational opportunities. Data science education at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) can narrow this divide by engaging diverse student and faculty populations who have the knowledge and skills required to address issues of social and cultural relevance. MSIs have proven to be effective at recruiting, retaining, and preparing under-represented students for the STEM workforce. This project seeks to bring together representatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and professional organizations to build resource networks, identify barriers to data science education, and co-create a set of recommendations focusing specifically on environmental sciences, thus empowering and supporting equitable data science education and training opportunities that ameliorate the digital divide. The focus on environmental data science springs from two factors that indicate strong workforce needs nationwide: a significant increase in large ecological datasets and environmental synthesis projects over the last decade and the growing national awareness of critical environmental challenges. The project team includes representatives from the Academic Data Science Alliance, Native BioData Consortium, Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative, the SCORE-UBE Network, The Carpentries and the National Environmental Observation Network and the project will engage a broad collection of additional academic and community partners. This project will organize monthly HBCU and TCU working group meetings and a series of mini-workshops to meet the following goals: 1) identify the unique assets that HBCUs and TCUs bring to environmental data science education; 2) analyze barriers to adoption of data science in teaching relevant courses; 3) identify and raise awareness of resources available to support equitable data science education; 4) promote relationship-building among faculty and partner organizations, forming the basis of a network for future resource sharing and curriculum development with peer support; and, 5) collaboratively develop a living document with recommendations that will enhance student success in environmental data science. Project activities will allow participants, with support from a Leadership Committee and community partners, to identify institutional assets and challenges, and how to best leverage partnerships to enhance data science capacity at HBCUs and TCUs. The project will build relationships and concentrate activities on identifying shared solutions that can be adopted within a variety of contexts and scales. Information gathered during all workshops and the project evaluation will be incorporated in a living document with recommendations that will be disseminated to all network partners and to the wider data science community. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. 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.