Project BUILD (Building Using an Interactive Learning Design)

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划的努力，以更好地了解和促进实践，通过将青年(2-5年级)、他们的家人、图书管理员和专业工程师聚集在一个非正式环境中，提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力，非正式环境的中心是让年轻人获得适合年龄的、技术丰富的STEM学习经验，这些经验对工程设计过程至关重要。总体目标是更好地了解青年的学习偏好或倾向与他们的STEM学习经历之间的关系。它还寻求建立社区成员的能力，以激励和教育年轻人关于STEM职业的知识。该项目团队包括空间科学研究所(SSI)国家互动学习中心(NCIL)、弗吉尼亚大学(UVA)和美国土木工程师学会(ASCE)。这个团队建立在之前NSF资助的名为STAR图书馆教育网络(STAR_NET)的项目的范围和覆盖范围的基础上。作为先前工作的延伸，Project Build将与6个公共图书馆(3个城市图书馆和3个农村图书馆)及其当地ASCE分馆合作。两家图书馆被选为试点：科罗拉多州的高平原公共图书馆和佛罗里达州的非裔美国人研究图书馆和文化中心。所有伙伴图书馆都将制定一项计划，从目前STEM专业中任职人数不足的群体中招募参与者。建立项目的具体目标是1)吸引服务不足的受众，2)培养参与的图书馆管理员和ASCE志愿者的能力，3)提高2-5年级青年及其家庭对STEM活动的兴趣和参与度，4)开展全面的教育研究项目。计划的组成部分包括：1)社区对话活动，2)合作图书馆员和ASCE志愿者的专业发展计划，以及3)开发技术丰富的编程工具包和流通STEM工具包计划。将讨论两个研究问题：1)哪些共同因素可以识别参与项目活动的青年，哪些因素可以区分继续参与项目活动的青年和不参与项目活动的青年？以及2)哪些计划因素(即计划活动的设计和组成、图书馆招聘、图书馆员参与、专业工程师参与等)是否会影响青年最初和继续参与项目活动，以及青年所报告的未来职业兴趣？外部评价将调查项目进程的质量及其影响和效果。将通过1)社区对话活动、2)图书馆和图书馆员外联活动、3)美国图书馆协会外联活动和4)出版研究和评价结果，使参与的图书馆社区、图书馆和工程专业人员以及教育界受益。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by bringing together youth (grades 2-5), their families, librarians, and professional engineers in an informal environment centered on engaging youth with age-appropriate, technology-rich STEM learning experiences fundamental to the engineering design process. The overarching aim is to better understand how youth's learning preferences or dispositions relate to their STEM learning experiences. It also seeks to build community members' capacity to inspire and educate youth about STEM careers. The project team includes the Space Science Institute's (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL), the University of Virginia (UVA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This team builds on the scope and reach of a prior NSF-funded project called the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net). As an extension of this prior work, Project BUILD will collaborate with 6 public libraries (3 urban and 3 rural) and their local ASCE Branches. Two libraries have been selected to serve as pilots: High Plains Public Library in Colorado and the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Florida. All partner libraries will develop a plan for recruiting participants from groups currently underrepresented in STEM professions. Project BUILD's specific aims are to 1) Engage underserved audiences, 2) Build the capacity of participating librarians and ASCE volunteers, 3) Increase interest and engagement in STEM activities for youth in grades 2-5 and their families, and 4) Conduct a comprehensive education research project. Program components include the following: 1) Community Dialogue Events, 2) a Professional Development Program for partner librarians and ASCE volunteers, and 3) Development of a Technology-rich Programming Kit and Circulating STEM Kit program. Two research questions will be addressed: 1) What common factors might identify youth who engage in project activities and what factors might differentiate between youth who continue with program engagement and those who do not? and 2) What programmatic factors (i.e. design and composition of program activities, library recruitment, librarian engagement, professional engineer engagement, etc.) might influence youth's initial and continued engagement in project activities as well as youth's reported future career interests? An external evaluation will investigate the quality of the project's process as well as its impact and effectiveness. Benefits to the participating libraries' communities, library and engineering professionals, and the education community will be achieved through 1) Community Dialogue events; 2) Library and Librarian Outreach; 3) ASCE Outreach; and 4) Publication of Research and Evaluation results.