Ira A. Levine1 and Tiffany Cannis1,2
1 Algae Foundation, Poland, ME, USA.
2 Global Algae Innovations, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA
Algae Foundation is an American non-profit organization dedicated to all forms of algal-based education, workforce development and training. The Algae Foundation’s mission is to promote the “Power of Algae” to transform human society and the environment upon which it depends. Currently in its seventh year, The Algae Foundation (AF) has served over 140,000 students and trainees from 100 countries.
The ATEC initiatives are intended to develop algal-based bioeconomy workforce development, education and training programs including: 1. Community college and university based curricula in Algal Cultivation and Biotechnology; 2. A student competition – AlgaePrize; 3. Algae Cultivation Extension Short-courses (ACES); 4. Algae Academy and CULTIVATE, K-12 STEM education programs; 5. Algae Massive Open Online Courses; and 6. Microcredentialing Digital Badging Programs. The AlgaePrize, launched 1/13/2022, is a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored competition to develop new algal technologies supporting gigaton scale algal cultivation.
ATEC 2016-2022 accomplishments include: Algae Academy ~ 110,000 students in 49 states, 1 territory and 3 countries; Adoption of ATEC curricula by 25 community colleges and universities with nearly 2000 students involved taking algal-based courses, laboratories, and degree programs awarding its first degrees in 2018; Algae MOOCs #1 (Introduction to Algae) and #2 (Algae Biotechnology) have attracted > 28,000 students with a 98 % approval rating; ACES has been taken by more than 2250 students from 100 countries: and the ATEC microcredentialing digital badging program earned a national endorsement by the Algae Biomass Organization in July 2019.
Keywords: Algae, Workforce development, Education, Training and Outreach