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名高中生在纽约科学馆参加课外工程项目的经历，这是一个位于皇后区科罗纳高度多样化的社区的科学中心。在2016-2017学年，这些年轻人将与到访的常驻设计师合作，学习更多关于工程设计的知识，并为博物馆参观者设计、开发和实施新的动手工程设计活动和计划。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共同的工作做出贡献，并鼓励参与者参与到具有工程专业特色的思维、工作、教学和学习的角度和方式中。对许多针对代表性不足的年轻人的工程项目的评估表明，这些项目可以对结果和教育轨迹产生重大影响。但很少有研究详细调查特定的方案结构、政策或做法对创造一种环境的贡献，在这种环境中，来自不同背景的青年选择坚持和追求他们对工程学的参与和作为工程师的身份培养。本研究将使用参与式行动研究，以捕捉计划参与者的观点和经验，并参考有关K-12工程教育状况的文献，以及在本科工程课程中未被充分代表的青年的经验，以指导其设计和重点。非主导青年在工程教育中遇到的困难得到了广泛的承认，但在项目设计者和教育工作者更好地了解这些青年如何协商在他们自己的兴趣和认同之间建立牢固、有意义的联系的过程以及他们潜在地成为工程学学生的新身份之前，这些困难无法得到有效的解决。这项研究的结果将为NYSCI、以博物馆为基础的教育社区以及寻求支持希望探索工程设计并为本科教育项目成功做准备的未被充分代表的高中生提供支持的教育工作者和研究人员提供方案决策和进一步的研究。

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.