Schoolyard Scientists: An Investigation of Impacts Associated with Urban Youth Engagement in Participatory Scientific Research Activities

探索研究K-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具（RMT），显着提高学前班学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议项目提供了理论和经验依据。这个项目是重要的，因为它使用社区学习环境科学，在一种称为公民科学或启发式科学研究（PSR）的方法。该项目将针对城市和多样化的东旧金山弗朗西斯科湾区代表性不足的初中和高中学生的学习成果。将研究的基本问题涉及当地的颗粒物（PM）。该项目将产生信息，有助于更好地了解科学课程与PSR活动对科学学习的影响。该项目将为10所不同的初中和高中的学生提供机会，让他们参与广泛的活动，收集、分析和传播当地城市社区产生的数据。一个附带的课程，其中包括新的和以前测试的技能发展活动也将产生和用于帮助学生在连接PSR活动相互关联的主题，如：能源的产生和使用，全球气候，环境退化和社区健康（哮喘，特别是）。该项目将完善学习理论，使科学实践，身份，价值和相关性之间的联系更加明确。该项目将产生有益于今后在城市地区发展有效学习环境的信息，提供积极的科学教育经验，挑战学生以前的科学观念和方式。学生将学习如何通过获得科学实践的更深入的了解与科学认同。他们将学习如何分析和解释数据;构建解释;参与证据论证;以及获取，评估和交流信息。学生们将收集空气样本，并使用电子显微镜进行分析。在进行研究时，学生将使用低成本，高精度的AirBeam颗粒监测器和平板电脑设备来测量和地理参考PM浓度水平，因为他们在学校和周围社区旅行。这些测量结果将用于评估学校建筑物内的通风条件，并与不同的运输路线和运输系统相关联，以评估特定地区与不同运输方式相关的暴露模式。其结果将是增加对科学在日常生活中的相关性和价值的理解。该项目还将产生高质量的颗粒物数据，这些数据将对当地的环境工作以及公共卫生和大气科学家有用。

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This project is significant because it uses the community for learning science of the environment, in an approach called Citizen Science or Participatory Science Research (PSR). The project will target learning outcomes for underrepresented middle and high school students in the urban and diverse East San Francisco Bay Area. The fundamental issues that will be studied deal with particulate matter (PM) in the local area. The project will generate information that contributes to better understanding the impact of a science curriculum with PSR activities on science learning. The project will provide opportunities for students at a total of 10 different middle and high school sites to engage in a broad range of activities where the students will collect, analyze, and disseminate data generated in local urban communities. An accompanying curriculum that includes new and previously tested skills development activities also will be produced and used to aid students in connecting PSR activities to inter-related topics such as: energy generation and use, global climate, environmental degradation, and community health (asthma, in particular). The project will refine a theory of learning that makes more explicit the connections between science practices, identity, and value and relevance. The project will yield information useful in the future development of effective learning environments in urban areas, providing positive science education experiences to challenge students' previous notions and ways of relating to science. The students will learn how to identify with science by gaining a deeper understanding of science practices. They will learn how to analyze and interpret data; construct explanations; engage in argument from evidence; and obtain, evaluate and communicate information. The students will be collecting air samples which will be analyzed using an electron microscope. In conducting their research, students will use low cost, highly accurate AirBeam particle monitors and tablet devices to measure and georeference PM concentration levels as they travel within their schools and surrounding communities. These measurements will then be used to assess ventilation conditions within school buildings, and correlated with different transit routes and transportation systems in an attempt to assess exposure patterns associated with different modes of transit in a given area. The result will be an increase in the understanding of the relevance and the value of science in everyday life. The project will also yield high quality particulate matter data that will be useful for local environmental efforts as well as to public health and atmospheric scientists.