Sustaining the Engagement of Highly Diverse Communities of High School Students in an Out-of-School Engineering Residency Program: An Exploratory, Capacity-Building Study

这个为期一年的项目研究了八个高中年龄的青年在纽约科学大厅的课后工程项目的经验，科学中心在高度多样化的社区科罗纳，皇后区。在2016-2017学年，这些年轻人将与来访的设计师在驻地工作，了解更多关于工程设计，并设计，开发和实施新的动手工程设计活动和计划，为博物馆游客。这项研究的目标是确定具体的活动和合作方式，邀请参与者利用他们的不同背景，为他们的共同工作做出贡献，并鼓励参与者参与的角度和思维方式，工作，教学和学习是独特的工程专业。对许多针对代表性不足的青年的工程项目的评估表明，这些项目可以对成果和教育轨迹产生有意义的影响。但是，很少有研究详细调查什么特定的方案结构，政策或做法有助于创造一个环境，使来自不同背景的青年选择坚持和追求他们的工程参与和培养工程师的身份。 本研究将采用参与式行动研究来捕捉项目参与者的观点和经验，并借鉴K-12工程教育状况的文献，以及本科工程项目中代表性不足的青年的经验，以告知其设计和重点。非主导青年在工程教育中遇到的困难得到了广泛的承认，但不能有效地解决，直到程序设计者和教育工作者更好地了解这些青年谈判的过程中建立强大的，有意义的连接自己的利益和身份和他们的潜在感应到一个新的身份作为一个学生的工程。该研究的结果将为NYSCI的计划决策和进一步研究提供信息，在基于博物馆的教育界，以及寻求支持希望探索工程设计并为本科教育课程的成功做好准备的代表性不足的高中生的教育工作者和研究人员中。

This one-year project studies the experiences of eight high school-aged youth in an after-school engineering program at the New York Hall of Science, a science center in the highly diverse neighborhood of Corona, Queens. During the 2016-2017 school year, these young people will work with visiting Designers in Residence to learn more about engineering design, and to design, develop and implement new hands-on engineering design activities and programs for museum visitors. The goal of this research is to identify the specific activities and ways of working together that invite participants to draw on their diverse backgrounds to contribute to their shared work, and that encourage participants to engage with the perspectives and ways of thinking, working, teaching and learning that are distinctive to the engineering professions. Evaluations of many engineering programs targeting under-represented youth have shown that such programs can have a meaningful impact on outcomes and educational trajectories. But there is little research that investigates in any detail what particular programmatic structures, policies or practices contribute to creating an environment in which youth from diverse backgrounds choose to persist in and pursue their engagement with engineering and cultivation of an identity as an engineer. This study will use participatory action research to capture the perspectives and experiences of the program participants, and draws on literature on the state of K-12 engineering education, and on the experiences of underrepresented youth in undergraduate engineering programs, to inform its design and focus. The difficulties encountered by non-dominant youth in engineering education are broadly acknowledged, but cannot be addressed effectively until program designers and educators have better insight into how these youth negotiate the process of building strong, meaningful connections between their own interests and identity and their potential induction into a new identity as a student of engineering. The results of the study will inform programmatic decisions and further research at NYSCI, in the museum-based education community, and among educators and researchers seeking to support underrepresented high school students who wish to explore engineering design and prepare themselves for success in undergraduate education programs.