Collaborative Research: Examining the Impact of an Industry-aligned, STEM Problem Based Learning Curriculum on Native Hawaiian and Underrepresented Youth Workforce Development

STEMulate项目将推进学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）项目的努力，通过开发和测试一种促进STEM能力、兴趣、毅力的创新方法，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。为夏威夷原住民和其他未被充分代表的低收入第一代高中生准备和进入STEM劳动力市场。该项目以成功的高等教育模式为基础，将对该模式进行调整，以便在中学层面实施。该模式将重新设计，以与标准保持一致，并纳入适合年龄的基于问题的学习教学法和实践。将增加一个强大的劳动力发展组成部分，将暑期课程延长到学年，并提供学生行业实习。将探讨三个领域推进研究问题及其子问题。值得注意的是，夏威夷文化和STEM学习与现实世界中与行业一致的问题解决和劳动力发展机会在三个夏威夷岛屿上的深度融合。很少，如果有的话，ITEST项目已经检查了这种融合可能对这些特定目标人群产生的深刻的潜在影响。因此，建议的工作将增加文献，同时也直接影响数百名中学生和教师，大专学生和其他人。项目合作伙伴，如天文研究所、夏威夷EPSCoR Ike Wai、太平洋灾害中心、Hui O Waa Kaulua和Upward Bound将为工作的各个阶段提供重要的能力、专业知识和资源。在三年的时间里，大约225名高中学生参加了夏威夷大学毛伊岛学院、夏威夷大学希洛分校和Windward社区学院的上界和向上板数学和科学暑期课程，将参加STEMulate项目（75名学生/站点）。夏季课程将采用翻转课堂的方法，在STEM教师和本科生的带领下，在夏季课堂上，许多行业一致，STEM问题解决和实践工作将作为一个小组进行。在非结构化的夏季自习室期间，将通过录制视频和其他材料进行内容复习和课前/课后学习。在学年期间，将选出25名暑期参与者与当地和项目合作伙伴一起参加学生行业实习。采用准实验的前后研究设计，将目标青年与两个比较组的青年相匹配，学生将根据他们被分配到的小组参与项目的各个方面。该项目将探讨的三个研究问题包括：(1)使用技术丰富的STEM基于问题的学习（PBL）如何影响低收入和夏威夷原住民学生对STEM职业的兴趣？(2)在实习中扩展技术丰富的PBL方法是否会增加学生进入STEM劳动力的兴趣、动机和技能？(3)多个夏季的暴露是否有附加效益？仅仅一个夏天就能产生有效的结果吗？数据来源将包括：(1)前后调查，(2)团队合作调查，(3)访谈，以及(4)学生最终产品。形成性和总结性评估将由经验丰富的外部评估人员进行。该项目将向当地高中教职员工、当地和项目合作伙伴广泛传播数据、课程和培训材料，并通过教育机会委员会（Council for Opportunities in Education）向全国7万多名低收入家庭学生的暑期项目教育者提供网络研讨会。

Project STEMulate 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 developing and testing an innovative approach for promoting STEM competency, interest, persistence, preparation and entry into the STEM workforce among Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented, low-income, first generation high school students. Building on a successful postsecondary model, this project will adapt the model for implementation at the secondary level. The model will be redesigned to align with standards and incorporate age appropriate problem-based learning pedagogy and practices. A robust workforce development component will be added, extending the summer program into the academic year with student industry internships. Three field advancing research questions, with sub-questions, will be explored. Of notable significance is the deep convergence of Hawaiian culture and STEM learning with real world industry-aligned problem solving and workforce development opportunities across three Hawaiian Islands. Few, if any, ITEST projects have examined the profound potential impact such convergence could have on these specific target populations. Thus, the proposed work will add to the literature while also directly impacting hundreds of secondary students and teachers, postsecondary students, and others. Project partners such as the Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii EPSCoR Ike Wai, Pacific Disaster Center, Hui O Waa Kaulua, and Upward Bound will bring significant capacity, expertise, and resources to all phases of the work. Over a three-year period, approximately 225 high school students enrolled in Upward Bound and Upward Board Math and Science summer programs at the University of Hawaii Maui College, University of Hawaii Hilo, and Windward Community College will participate in Project STEMulate (75 students/site). The summer program will employ a flipped classroom approach, with much of the industry-aligned, STEM problem solving and hands on work being conducted as a group, during summer classroom sessions led by STEM instructors and undergraduate students. Content review and pre/post classroom session learning will occur via recorded videos and other materials during unstructured summer study hall periods. During the academic year, twenty-five of the summer participants will be selected to participate in student industry internships with local and project partners. Using a quasi-experimental, pre-post research design matching target youth with youth in two comparison groups, students will engage in various aspects of the project depending on which group they are assigned. The three research questions the project will explore include: (1) How does using technology-rich STEM problem-based learning (PBL) affect low-income and Native Hawaiian students' interest in STEM careers? (2) Does the extension of a technology-rich PBL approach in an internship increase students' interest, motivation, and skill to enter the STEM workforce? And (3) Are there additive benefits from multiple summers of exposure? Does one summer alone produce efficient results? Data sources will include: (1) pre and post-surveys, (2) team collaboration surveys, (3) interviews, and (4) student final products. Formative and summative evaluations will be conducted by an experienced external evaluator. The project will disseminate data, curricula, and training materials broadly to local high school staff, its local and project partners, and through the Council for Opportunities in Education webinars offered to summer-program educators serving over 70,000 low-income students nationwide.