NSC Awarded $300,000 STEM Grant
North Seattle College, in collaboration with Bellevue College, has been awarded a $300,000 National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Grant to launch the Climate Justice in Undergraduate STEM Incorporating Civic Engagement (C-JUSTICE) Project. The C-JUSTICE project aims to improve STEM education by supporting community college faculty in creating course modules that teach complex problem solving through disciplinary practice, civic engagement, equity, and systems thinking.
“In its first year this NSF grant will support the work of eight STEM faculty at North Seattle College in math, physics, biology, and chemistry, to incorporate climate justice and civic engagement into their core classes. In years two and three of the grant, we’ll be adding four additional faculty to the cohort,” said Dr. Heather Price, Chemistry Faculty and Climate Scientist at North Seattle College.
Community college students are more ethnically diverse than at any time in history and face some of the greatest challenges in human history: global climate and environmental change as it intersects socioeconomic and racial inequity. Their STEM education, which is occurring largely at community colleges, needs to be relevant to the scale and complexity of these problems and needs to equip them not just with scientific knowledge but also with the systems thinking skills and civic engagement tools they will need to create societal change and improve their communities. The principle of climate justice acknowledges the disproportionate impact that climate change has on marginalized communities. The C-JUSTICE project will equip diverse students with the broad and interdisciplinary skills they need to tackle these challenges in their communities.
“This grant will help bridge disciplines from humanities to STEM to incorporate climate justice and civic engagement across the curriculum.”
This project builds on Bellevue College’s and North Seattle College’s ongoing Climate Justice in the Curriculum projects, focused on faculty professional development and building a climate justice lesson archive. Price will serve as Co-Primary Investigator for the project.
The C-JUSTICE Project is funded by the National Science Foundation under award number NSF-DUE-2043535. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.