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

Ascend研发项目是加州大学圣克鲁斯分校(几个部门)与地区博物馆、市政府职业培训项目和当地企业合作的项目，旨在探索为高危青年整合和比较两种可持续的工程学徒方式的影响--设计-建造和关于设计-建造经验的数字故事讲述。它将UCSC为本科生实施的STEM非正式教育模式应用并扩展到非正式STEM教育中。项目目标是：(1)了解如何激励高危青年从事绿色技术职业；(2)通过研究研究了解数字讲故事是否/如何提高青年在STEM、内容知识和实践方面的熟练程度；(3)探索科学博物馆如何成为以项目为基础的学习和地方可持续发展工作的社区网络的一部分。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，以此为基础为高危青年在可持续发展/绿色技术领域以STEM为基础的职业做准备。该项目旨在为博物馆如何与其他组织(在这种情况下，是采用绿色设计的市政码头企业)合作，围绕可持续的做法和职业创建持久的社区关系提供一个模式。这项可行性、概念验证研究涉及大约60名处于危险之中的青年，以及几名当地专业人员和企业家、博物馆的工作人员和参观者、市政官员、本科生作为导师以及内容领域和数字讲故事方法方面的大学教师和研究人员。根据他们在项目过程中的发现，该团队的意图是在加州和美国范围内从概念和地理上扩展该模型。

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.