DEDICATE

Data Science Equity-Driven Inquiry to Create Accessible Project-based Training for Social Impact Education

To build institutional as well as individual faculty capacity in teaching data science not only at historically underserved institutions (HBCUs and HSIs), but also within the Social Impact Areas of 1. Criminal Justice, 2. Geosciences and Health Disparities, and 3. Food and Water Systems.

Data-enabled modules

Leverage educational research techniques to design data-enabled modules that are culturally relevant and can be used across disciplines to empower natural collaboration around real-world challenges.

Social impact areas

Bridging both Non-STEM and STEM disciplines into data-enabled projects around problems of high social impact, specifically climate change (geosciences), criminal justice, and food and water sciences.

Student exposure to STEM

Focus on faculty capacity-building and support as the primary mechanism for systemic change, as increasing faculty interest, ability, and confidence in delivering data-centric content across disciplines translates into exponential growth in the exposure of students to STEM and their preparation for STEM Education, aligning with the NSF INCLUDES Shared Measures Initiative.

Faculty support networks

Fully supporting faculty networks with not only data-enabled modules, but also creation frameworks and assessment tools aligned to ACM and other national and international standards, supporting non-technical faculty in module delivery, creating curated Social Impact modules - co-designed with impact area instructors from across the region, as well as providing training, community forums, and working groups for network expansion and organization around systemic advocacy topics.

Why DEDICATE?

Today's grand challenges such as protecting the population from disease, mitigating climate change and eliminating social inequality can not be solved by STEM alone. There are human factors where we needed and missed the input of fields like psychology, sociology, and even communications to our collective detriment. These fields have higher levels of participation from historically marginalized communities. By using data as a connector, we empower natural areas of collaboration and new pipelines for faculty and student engagement in STEM education. Also the broader faculty network that will be created through this project will empower a sustained advocacy network for systemic institutional change.

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