Understanding How Narrative Elements Can Shape Girls' Engagement in Museum-Based Engineering Design Tasks

创客空间和工程设计空间在科学博物馆、学校、图书馆和社区环境中迅速扩散。然而，存在一种风险，即存在于工程领域的一些相同的不平等正在这些环境中复制。研究提供的证据表明，男孩和女孩对工程的兴趣水平存在持续的差距，因为它传统上表现在非正式的学习环境中，特别是在制造和工程空间中。这个研究服务于实践的项目旨在通过采用基于设计的研究方法来解决这一差距，研究叙事元素是否以及在多大程度上能引起中学女生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的兴趣和参与，并促进公平、有效的工程设计经验和实践。这项工作意义重大，因为它将建立在当前的研究和概念性理解的基础上，即如何为非正式学习空间，特别是女孩，以及在博物馆的体验式学习环境中设计富有叙事的工程设计活动。这也将有助于为女孩如何处理和选择坚持解决工程设计问题提供证据基础。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。纽约科学馆（NYSCI）与阿肯色州本顿维尔的亚马逊博物馆、加利福尼亚州圣何塞的创新科技博物馆、印第安纳大学的创意实验室和一个顾问团队合作，将分两个阶段进行为期30个月的以设计为基础的研究项目。在第一阶段，NYSCI将从其合作伙伴那里获得持续的投入，以开发六对工程设计活动的并行版本，一个有叙事元素，一个没有。这些活动将在NYSCI的设计实验室中进行迭代测试，这是一个10,000平方英尺的展览，致力于实践工程设计的探索。将探讨几个研究问题，主要集中在建立基于证据的设计知识，建立吸引力和可理解性，以及促进理解。观察和访谈数据将从30名7-14岁的女孩及其家庭群体中收集，用于12项活动的每项活动，研究样本中共有360名女孩。配对活动的研究结果将是迭代的，并提供关于叙事元素如何最有效地邀请女孩持续参与每个活动中突出的核心工程概念和实践的见解。在第二阶段，将进行形成性和总结性评估，通过对比在三个博物馆场地实施的两种类型的活动中女孩的参与质量，研究工程设计活动的叙事和非叙事版本对参与女孩的参与和坚持的影响。项目可交付成果包括报告项目发现的期刊文章；满足项目目标的活动的文件；为展览和课程开发人员提供的设计指南，他们对有效地使用叙事来框架工程设计活动感兴趣；并为寻求确保在女童探索这些活动时有效支持她们的辅导员提供实用指导。

Makerspaces and engineering design spaces have proliferated in science museums, schools, libraries, and community settings at a rapid pace. However, there is a risk that some of the same inequities that exist in the engineering field are being replicated in these settings. Research has provided evidence of persistent gaps between boys' and girls' levels of interest in engineering as it has been traditionally represented in informal learning environments, particularly in Making and engineering spaces. This Research-In-Service to Practice project intends to address this gap by employing a design-based research approach to examine if and to what extent narrative elements can interest and engage middle school girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and promote equitable, effective engineering design experiences and practices. This work is significant, as it will build upon current research and conceptual understanding of how to design narrative-rich engineering design activities for informal learning spaces, especially for girls, and within museum drop-in experiential learning contexts. It will also contribute to the evidence base regarding how girls approach and choose to persist in solving engineering design problems. The project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in collaboration with the Amazeum in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, the Creativity Labs at Indiana University and a team of advisors will conduct the 30-month, design-based research project in two phases. In the first phase, NYSCI will garner ongoing input from its partners to develop parallel versions of six pairs of engineering design activities, one with narrative elements and one without. These activities will be iteratively tested in NYSCI's Design Lab, a 10,000 square foot exhibition devoted to hands-on exploration of engineering design. Several research questions will be explored, focused primarily on building evidence-based design knowledge, establishing appeal and comprehensibility, and understanding facilitation. Observational and interview data will be garnered from 30 girls aged 7-14 and their family groups for each of the twelve activities developed, totaling 360 girls in the study sample. The results of the research on the paired activities will be iterative and provide insight on how narrative elements can most effectively invite girls into sustained engagement with the core engineering concepts and practices highlighted in each activity. In the second phase, formative and summative evaluation will be conducted to study the impact of the narrative and non-narrative versions of the engineering design activities on participating girls' engagement and persistence, by contrasting the quality of girls' engagement across the two types of activities while they are implemented across three museum sites. Project deliverables include journal articles reporting on project findings; documentation of activities that meet project goals; design guidelines for exhibit and curriculum developers who are interested in using narrative effectively to frame engineering design activities; and practical guidance for facilitators seeking to ensure that they are supporting girls effectively as they explore those activities.