Promoting Robotic Design and Entrepreneurship Experiences among Students and Teachers

该项目将开发、实施和评估一项在学生和教师中推广机器人设计和创业经验的倡议。每年，来自纽约全部5个区的8所高中的16名教师和32名学生将参加为期4周的暑期学院，其中包括为期2周的指导培训和为期2周的协作机器人产品开发。参与者将主要来自社会、经济、种族和民族多元化的社区的学校；大约一半的参与者将是女性。在本学年，每所学校的两名教师将为至少25名学生开设一门机器人课程。将通过专业学习社区(PLC)促进课堂采用。在一年一度的总决赛中，学校团队将参加机器人产品设计和商业创意大赛，该大赛仿照纽约大学坦登工程学院孵化器计划协调的发明/发明大赛。在为期3年的项目中，来自24所高中的48名教师和96名学生将参加暑期学院，接触时间为160小时。通过学年选修课，教师将在项目资助期间吸引1200名学生。该项目成立了一个跨学科团队，成员包括机器人、创业、K-12课程设计和评估方面的专家，以支持项目设计和实施。该项目设计采用了基于项目的学习(PBL)、K-12 STEM教育中的机器人和创业、社会认知职业生涯理论以及嵌入PLC的教师专业发展等研究的特点。在PBL框架中制定机器人活动将帮助参与者学习内容，发展规划和解决问题的技能，并培养他们的高阶认知技能。将PBL与创业活动相结合，将解决参与者对失败的恐惧、缺乏信心以及创造力和沟通技能。教师专业发展的设计将支持通过沉浸内容转移培训，允许建模和排练所需的技能，并让教师参与足够的持续时间，以支持新学习的认知需求。该项目将研究一个广泛的首要问题：通过PBL体验的机器人设计和创业活动是否对教师实践和学生结果产生积极影响？该项目将调查参与是否(1)建立教师能力，以有效利用机器人和创业背景下的PBL来促进STEM学习，以及(2)对学生的自我效能、结果期望、目标和对STEM学习和职业的兴趣产生积极影响。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划资助，该计划支持的项目旨在建立对最佳实践、计划要素、背景和流程的理解，有助于让学生参与学习并培养他们对STEM、信息和通信技术(ICT)、计算机科学以及相关STEM内容和职业的兴趣。

The project will develop, implement, and assess an initiative to promote robotic design and entrepreneurship experiences among students and teachers. Each year, 16 teachers and 32 students from 8 high schools located in all 5 boroughs of New York will attend a 4-week summer institute consisting of a 2-week guided training and a 2-week collaborative robotic-product development. The participants will come primarily from schools in underserved neighborhoods with socially, economically, racially, and ethnically diverse student bodies; approximately half of the participants will be female. During the academic year, each school's two teachers will conduct a robotics course for at least 25 students. Classroom adoption will be facilitated through a professional learning community (PLC). In the annual grand finale, school teams will compete in a robot product design and business idea contest, modeled after the Inno/Vention contest coordinated by the Incubator Initiatives of NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Over the 3-year project duration, 48 teachers and 96 students from 24 high schools will participate in the summer institute with 160 contact hours. Through the academic year elective, teachers will engage 1,200 students during the project funding period. The project has formed an interdisciplinary team including experts in robotics, entrepreneurship, K-12 curriculum design, and assessment to support project design and implementation. The project design adapts features from research on project-based learning (PBL), robotics and entrepreneurship in K-12 STEM education, social cognitive career theory, and teacher professional development embedded in a PLC. Formulating robotics activities in a PBL framework will help participants learn content, develop planning and problem-solving skills, and foster their higher-order cognitive skills. Integration of PBL with entrepreneurship activities will address participant fear of failure, lack of confidence, and creativity and communication skills. The design of the teacher professional development will support transfer of training through content-immersion, allow modeling and rehearsing of desired skills, and involve teachers for a sufficient duration to support the cognitive demands of new learning. The project will research the broad overarching question: Do robotics design and entrepreneurship activities, experienced through PBL, positively influence teacher practices and student outcomes? The project will investigate if participation (1) builds teacher capacity to effectively utilize PBL, contextualized in robotics and entrepreneurship, to promote STEM learning and (2) positively impacts students self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, and interest in STEM studies and careers. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program that supports projects that build understandings of best practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to engaging students in learning and developing interest in STEM, information and communications technology (ICT), computer science, and related STEM content and careers.