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

科学在学习花园(SciLG)将使用学校花园作为学习环境，在俄勒冈州波特兰的两所低收入中学学习，学生主要是种族和少数民族。全国各地有数以千计的花园蓬勃发展，没有得到充分利用，成为中学学生积极参与的场所。学校花园提供了重要的文化背景，同时解决了环境和食物问题。本中心将在他们智力发展的关键时刻，将未被充分代表的青年带入花园，以拓宽支持他们追求STEM职业和教育途径的动力的因素。该项目将调整、组织并将两套不同的现有资源整合到项目课程中：六年级的科学课程资源，以及基于花园的课程和单元。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改进教学和形成性评估，并调查学生在科学能力方面取得成功的因素，以及他们与花园课程相关的动机投入。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级进行试点测试，共有240名学生。随着课程整合的继续，7年级和8年级的学生将分别在2年级和3年级接受纵向跟踪。研究小组将每年支持参与的教师使用他们学校的花园，并研究如何将这一背景作为与NGSS相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接近中学目标结束时的进展情况来衡量，这是由NGSS定义的。动机将通过经过验证的激励参与度工具进行衡量。本小组的成果以及激励性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。

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.