Pathways: Apprenticeships in Sustainability Science and Engineering Design (ASCEND)

ASCEND研究和开发项目是加州大学圣克鲁斯分校（UC Santa Cruz）与地区博物馆、市政府职业培训项目和当地企业的合作项目，旨在探索整合和比较两种可持续的工程学徒方法对风险青年的影响——设计-建造和关于设计-建造经验的数字故事。它应用并扩展到非正式的STEM教育中，这是UCSC为本科生实施的一种模式。项目目标是：(1)了解如何激励和培养有风险的青年从事绿色科技职业；(2)透过研究了解数码讲故事能否/如何提高青少年对STEM、内容知识和实践的熟练程度；(3)探索科学博物馆如何成为社区网络的一部分，以解决基于项目的学习和地方可持续发展的努力。该项目旨在更好地协调和利用现有的圣克鲁斯绿色技术和可持续发展项目，为有风险的青年在可持续发展/绿色技术领域的stem职业做好准备。该项目旨在为博物馆如何与其他组织（在这种情况下，采用绿色设计的市政码头企业）合作提供一个模式，以围绕可持续实践和职业建立持久的社区关系。可行性和概念验证研究涉及大约60名高危青年，以及一些当地专业人士和企业家，博物馆的工作人员和游客，市政官员，本科生作为导师和大学教师，以及内容领域和数字故事叙述方法的研究人员。根据其在项目过程中的发现，该团队的意图是在概念上和地理上扩展加利福尼亚和美国周围的模型。

The ASCEND research and development project is a collaboration of UC Santa Cruz (several departments) with area museums, municipal government programs in vocational training and local businesses that explores the impact of integrating and comparing two sustainable engineering apprenticeship approaches for at-risk youth -- design-build and digital-storytelling about the design-build experiences. It applies and expands into informal STEM education a model that UCSC has implemented for undergraduates.Project objectives are: (1) understand how to motivate and prepare at-risk youth for careers in green technology; (2) learn via a research study whether/how digital-storytelling can increase youths' proficiency in STEM, content knowledge and practices; (3) explore how the science museums can be part of a community network addressing project-based learning and local sustainability efforts.The project seeks to better coordinate and leverage existing Santa Cruz green technology and sustainability projects as a basis for preparing at-risk youth for STEM-based careers in the sustainability/green technology field. The project intends to provide a model for how museums can work with other organizations (in this case, municipal wharfs businesses that employ green design) to create lasting community relationships around sustainable practices and careers. The feasibility, proof-of-concept study involves approximately 60 at-risk youth, as well as several local professionals and entrepreneurs, staff and visitors at the museums, municipal officials, undergraduate students as mentors and university instructors and researchers in the content domain and in digital storytelling approaches. Drawing on its findings over the course of the project, the team's intention is to expand the model conceptually and geographically around California and the USA.