FUSE Studios: An Alternative Infrastructure for STEM Learning and Interest Development

FUSE工作室项目根据游戏设计原则为青少年设计了一系列学习挑战，以：(1)开发和完善以设计为基础的迭代研究和开发周期，以开发新的挑战和新的序列，并修改当前的挑战；2)对这些新的非正式学习环境和参与者的学习经验进行原创的、多方面的研究。该项目回应的是，正规的STEM教育做法未能以有意义的方式吸引青年参与，也未能使青年走上与STEM相关的职业和在以后生活中参与科学的持续道路。在拟议的三年项目中，该项目以试点工作和以图书馆为基础的青年方案的相关评估结果为基础，调查研究问题，这些问题涉及持久性、从失败中学习的能力、解决问题的创造性灵活性和选择，作为培养与STEM相关的兴趣和技能的有力指标。项目挑战赛被称为FUSE工作室，旨在成为STEM学习和兴趣发展的替代结构。FUSE Studios围绕一系列兴趣驱动的挑战进行组织，这些挑战包括数字和动手活动)，这些挑战以视频游戏序列为模型链接在一起。参与者选择挑战序列(例如，机器人迷你高尔夫、MP3放大器、使用3D/CAD的移动应用程序开发珠宝设计)。这项研究研究了参与者如何参与挑战序列的模式，以及他们在这样做时学到了什么。参与者可以自由选择应对挑战的资源，这为研究参与者如何从FUSE工作室提供的各种人力、网络和物质资源中收集应对挑战的资源提供了一个独特的机会。该项目还研究了知识和实践如何在参与者之间流通。最后，研究将着眼于该项目？S采用迭代的、以设计为基础的研究过程，是否逐步在STEM中吸收更多的青年代表。研究使用人种学和纵向研究、RFID/视频捕获数据、互联学习和其他维度的调查以及网站生成的活动地图。

The FUSE Studios project designs a series of learning challenges for youth, derived from principles of game design, to: (1) develop and refine a design-based and iterative research and development cycle that will develop new challenges and new sequences, and revise current challenges; 2) conduct original, multi-faceted research on these new informal learning environments and the learning experiences of participants. The project responds to the failure of formal STEM education practices to engage youth in ways that are meaningful and that fail to engage youth on sustained pathways towards STEM-related careers and involvement in science in later life. In the proposed three year project, building upon pilot work and related evaluation findings from the library-based setting of the youth program, the project investigates research questions that address persistence, the capacity to learn from failure, creative flexibility in problem solving, and choice as powerful indicators of developing interest in and skills related to STEM. The project challenges, called FUSE Studios, are designed to be an alternative structure for STEM learning and interest development. FUSE Studios are organized around sequences of interest-driven challenges, that involve both digital and hands-on activities) that are linked together in a progression modeled after video-game sequences. Participants select a challenge sequence (e.g., robot mini-golf, MP3 amplifier, mobile app development jewelry design using 3D/cad). The research studies patterns of how participants engage with challenge sequences and what they learn when doing so. Participants freely choose resources for meeting the challenges, which provides a unique opportunity to study how participants assemble resources for challenges from the variety of human, web-based and material resources available in the FUSE studios. The project also researches how knowledge and practices circulate among participants. Finally, research will look at whether the project?s approach to iterative, design-based research processes progressively engages a broader representation of youth in STEM. Research uses ethnographic and longitudinal studies, RFID/video capture data, surveys of connected learning and other dimensions, and website-generated activity maps.