The Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem

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This project re-conceptualizes STEM Innovation, Teaching, and Learning through the establishment of significant academic and community partnerships. Drawing from principles and best practices for engaged learning and creation of innovative learning environments, partners seek to develop a system of innovation and STEM learning across institutions that is woven into the cultural fabric of the region. Specifically, a team of student interns, their faculty, and community mentors will investigate and implement improvements to an impaired waterway and the surrounding economically challenged neighborhood in South Bend, Indiana. Collaborators for the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem include many partners: administrators and faculty from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana University at South Bend, Ivy Tech Community College, and Riley High School of South Bend; and community partners from the City of South Bend's Office of Innovation, neighborhood associations, and a community development corporation. The proposed project is Phase I of a two-phase effort and has two key technical goals: 1) to advance the theory and knowledge of educational environments that contribute to building and strengthening the STEM pipeline from high school to graduate school; 2) to develop a collaborative and sustainable community/institutional infrastructure to support trans-disciplinary, authentic STEM learning for community impact. The approach taken is housed within an innovative framework designed to dig deeper for answers about STEM learning, engagement, knowledge, skill as well as the impact of economic deficits with which many post-industrial cities struggle. The research questions posed aim to generate knowledge about how perceptions of identity and possibility together with life experiences shape choices with regard to STEM at different levels of education and what factors facilitate or inhibit positive STEM collaboration. A variety of methods for seeking answers to the questions are adopted including exploratory sequential mixed methods for exploring STEM pathways and cultural domain analysis for generating cognitive maps of how students culturally understand STEM pathways at the beginning and end of the project. Participants in the project-based learning experience are ethnically and socio-economically diverse, furthermore, the research questions posed examine important issues such as the types of collaboration that take place in diverse student groups and their effect on students' recruitment, retention and perceived identity in STEM.