CAREER: Broadening Contexts to Motivate Participation in Engineering

这个项目的主要目标是调查5-8年级的学生如何通过参与有意整合他们个人兴趣的工程挑战来影响他们对工程的参与和感知。这项工作的优点在于发现吸引5-8年级学生的个人兴趣是否可以提高他们对工程的看法，并使他们更有可能将工程作为一种职业。该项目的工作包括让教师和学生参与以研究为基础的工程教育，旨在促进代表性不足群体的包容性。研究小组将采访和观察学生，以更好地了解他们的工程项目工作与他们自己的个人兴趣之间的关系。拟议项目的直接影响是通过有机会参与兴趣驱动的工程活动的教师和学生（特别是那些在工程领域代表性不足的教师和学生）的数量来衡量的。这项研究的结果可能会改变工程活动在大学预科课堂上的呈现方式。更广泛地说，该项目为全国范围内包容性工程活动的设计和交付提供了信息。这项研究的工作假设是，通过在更广泛的背景下展示工程，更多的学生将能够在工程挑战中确定他们自己的个人兴趣——从而使他们对工程作为一门学科产生更积极的看法。该项目涉及的研究将解决以下问题。拓宽工程活动的背景：吸引更多学生的个人兴趣？让未被充分代表的群体（女性和少数族裔）找到对个人有意义的联系？3. 使所有学生更真实地参与工程实践？改善学生对工程学的态度和认知？使用基于设计的研究方法，研究团队正在开发这种基于兴趣的工程课程方法，同时调查这种方法如何引起学生对工程的兴趣和真正的参与。本研究由三个部分组成：1)学生兴趣访谈研究，该研究为学生的兴趣创建了一个基线，使用语篇分析来确定主题和学生访谈反应的潜在相似性；2)课堂模拟研究，通过模拟课堂实施（在新建的、最先进的研究型课堂实验室空间）来调查学生对兴趣课程的参与情况；3)课堂实施研究，将课程的实施和调查置于真实的课堂环境中。课堂模拟研究和课堂实施研究都采用混合方法研究方法，对观察到的学生参与情况进行定性调查，并定量分析学生人口统计/态度数据与他们参与兴趣课程之间的关系。所有三项研究的结果将为基于兴趣的工程课程方法的迭代设计和实施提供信息。

The primary goal of this project is to investigate how grades 5-8 students' engagement in and perceptions of engineering are influenced through participating in engineering challenges that intentionally integrate their personal interests. The merit of this work lies in the discovery of whether appealing to grades 5-8 students' personal interests can improve their perceptions of engineering and make them more likely to pursue engineering as a career. The project work involves engaging teachers and students in research-based engineering education specifically designed to promote inclusivity among underrepresented groups. The research team will interview and observe students to better understand how their engineering project work relates to their own personal interests. The immediate impact of the proposed project is measured in the numbers of teachers and students (especially those underrepresented in engineering) that have an opportunity to participate in the interest-driven engineering activities. Results from the research are potentially transformative for how engineering activities are presented in pre-college classrooms. More broadly, the project informs the design and delivery of inclusive engineering activities throughout the nation. The working hypothesis for the research posits that, by presenting engineering in broader contexts, more students will be able to identify their own personal interests in the engineering challenge - resulting in a more positive perception of engineering as a discipline with which they identify. The research involved in the project will address the following questions. Does broadening the context of engineering activities: 1. Appeal to more students' personal interests?2. Empower underrepresented groups (female and minority) to find personally meaningful connections? 3. Lead to more authentic engagement in engineering practices for all students?4. Improve students' attitudes and perceptions of engineering? Using a design-based research methodology, the research team is developing this interest-based curricular approach to engineering while investigating how the approach elicits students' interest and authentic engagement in engineering. The research is comprised of three studies: 1) a students' interests interview study that creates a baseline for students' interests, using discourse analysis to identify themes and underlying similarities in students' interview responses; 2) a classroom simulation study that investigates students' engagement in the interest-based curriculum through simulated classroom implementations (in a newly constructed, state-of-the-art research classroom lab space); and 3) a classroom implementation study that situates the implementation and investigation of the curriculum in real classroom settings. Both the classroom simulation and classroom implementation studies utilize a mixed methods research approach to qualitatively investigate the observed engagement of the students, and to quantitatively analyze the relationships between students' demographic/attitudinal data and their participation in the interest-based curriculum. Findings from all three studies will inform the iterative design and implementation of the interest-based engineering curricular approach.