Science in the Learning Gardens: Factors that Support Racial and Ethnic Minority Students' Success in Low-Income Middle Schools

学习花园中的科学：支持少数族裔学生在低收入中学取得成功的因素

• 批准号: 1418270
• 负责人: Dilafruz Williams
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Portland State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1418270&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Science; Learning; Gardens; Factors; Support

Science in the Learning Gardens (SciLG) will use school gardens as the context for learning at two low-income middle schools with predominantly racial and ethnic minority students in Portland, Oregon. There are thousands of gardens flourishing across the country that are underutilized as contexts for active engagement in the middle grades. School gardens provide important cultural contexts while addressing environmental and food issues. SciLG will bring underrepresented youth into gardens at a critical time in their intellectual development to broaden the factors that support motivation to pursue STEM careers and educational pathways. The project will adapt, organize, and align two disparate sets of existing resources into the project curriculum: 6th grade science curriculum resources, and garden-based lessons and units. The curriculum will be directly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The project will use a design-based research approach to refine instruction and formative assessment, and to investigate factors for student success in science proficiency and their motivational engagement in relation to the garden curriculum. The curriculum will be pilot-tested during the first year of the project in five sixth-grade classes with 240 students in Portland Public Schools. Students will be followed longitudinally in grades 7 and 8 in years 2 and 3 respectively, as curricular integration continues. The research team will support participating teachers each year in using their schools' gardens, and study how this context can serve as an effective pedagogical strategy for NGSS-aligned science curriculum. Academic learning will be measured by assessments of student progress towards the end of middle-school goals defined by NGSS. Motivation will be measured by a validated motivational engagement instrument. SciLG results along with the motivational engagement instrument will be disseminated widely through a variety of professional networks to stimulate implementation nationwide.

学习花园中的科学（SciLG）将利用学校花园作为俄勒冈州波特兰两所以种族和少数民族学生为主的低收入中学的学习环境。全国各地有成千上万的花园，这些花园作为中等年级学生积极参与的背景没有得到充分利用。学校花园提供了重要的文化背景，同时解决了环境和粮食问题。SciLG将在智力发展的关键时刻将代表性不足的青年带入花园，以扩大支持追求STEM职业和教育途径的动机的因素。该项目将适应，组织和调整两套不同的现有资源到项目课程：六年级科学课程资源，和基于花园的经验教训和单位。该课程将直接与下一代科学标准（NGSS）保持一致。该项目将使用基于设计的研究方法来完善教学和形成性评估，并调查学生在科学能力方面取得成功的因素及其与花园课程相关的积极参与。 该课程将在项目的第一年在波特兰公立学校的五个六年级班进行试点测试，共有240名学生。随着课程整合的继续，学生将分别在2年级和3年级的7年级和8年级进行纵向跟踪。研究小组每年将支持参与教师使用他们学校的花园，并研究如何将这种情况作为与NGSS一致的科学课程的有效教学策略。学术学习将通过评估学生在NGSS定义的中学目标结束时的进展来衡量。动机将通过经验证的动机参与工具进行测量。SciLG的结果沿着激励参与工具将通过各种专业网络广泛传播，以促进全国范围内的实施。