Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration of a Keystone Species in New York Harbor

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目的工作，通过扩展和测试一种创新的课程模式，以当地相关的、基于问题的学习为特色，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。课程模式围绕纽约港的栖息地恢复进行组织，学生和教师将参与一系列活动，这些活动跨越了美国最大的城市学校系统的小学、初中和高中年级。学生们将进行实地研究，以支持恢复本地牡蛎栖息地，该项目将由广泛的机构和社区资源合作实施，包括佩斯大学、纽约市教育部、哥伦比亚大学拉蒙特-多尔蒂地球天文台、纽约科学院、纽约港基金会、纽约水族馆等。该项目侧重于地质、环境和生物科学中的重要概念，这些概念通常在学校得不到足够的重视：流域和关键物种的作用。这个项目建立在纽约港口学校的十亿牡蛎项目的基础上并进行了扩展。该项目模式包括几个相互关联的组成部分，包括：教师教育课程，其中包括侧重于修复科学的小学教师组成部分；学生学习课程；项目资源数字化平台；水族馆展览；课后STEM指导计划和近同伴指导计划；以社区为基础的恢复科学中心，以及为高中生提供的先进的恢复科学方法，包括基因条形码（物种ID）、环境DNA采样和分析、细菌监测和基本的水化学分析。该项目针对的是英语学习者人数众多的低收入社区的学生，以及在STEM领域和教育途径中代表性不足的群体的学生。该项目将在四年的时间里直接涉及97所学校，300多名教师和大约15,000名K-12学生。一个准实验的混合方法研究计划将用于评估项目组成部分的个人和集体有效性。将使用多变量分析来确定有效的计划方面，并评估参与各种计划组成部分组合的个人有效性。指导研究的问题包括：1。该项目如何影响K-12学生追求STEM职业的动机和准备？2. 与其他学生相比，该项目的哪些方面对代表性不足的学生追求STEM职业的动机和准备产生了积极影响？和3。与该项目相关的哪些课程创新有助于提高学生对从事STEM职业的认识和意图？该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase student motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by expanding and testing an innovative curriculum model that features locally relevant, problem-based learning. The curriculum model is organized around habitat restoration in New York harbor and will engage students and teachers in a sequence of activities that span the elementary, middle school, and high school grades of the nation's largest urban school system. Students will conduct field research in support of restoring native oyster habitats, and the project will be implemented by a broad partnership of institutions and community resources, including Pace University, the New York City Department of Education, the Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Harbor Foundation, the New York Aquarium, and others. The project focuses on important concepts in the geological, environmental, and biological sciences that typically receives inadequate attention in schools: watersheds and the roles of keystone species. This project builds on and extends the Billion Oyster Project of the New York Harbor School. The project model includes several interrelated components, including: a teacher education curriculum that includes a component for elementary teachers that focuses on restoration science; a student learning curriculum; a digital platform for project resources; an aquarium exhibit; an after-school STEM mentoring program and a near-peer mentoring program; community based restoration science hubs, and advanced methods in restoration science for high school students that includes genetic barcoding (species ID), environmental DNA sampling and analysis, bacterial monitoring, and basic water chemistry analysis. The project targets students in low-income neighborhoods with high populations of English language learners and students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields and education pathways. The project will directly involve 97 schools, over 300 teachers, and approximately 15,000 K-12 students over a period of four years. A quasi-experimental, mixed-methods research plan will be used to assess the individual and collective effectiveness of project components. Multivariate analyses will be used to identify effective program aspects and assess the individual effectiveness of participation in various combinations of program components. Questions guiding the research include: 1. How does the project influence motivation and preparation to pursue STEM careers among K-12 students? 2. What aspects of the project have a positive influence on underrepresented students' motivation and preparation to pursue STEM careers, compared to other students? And 3. What curricular innovations associated with the project contribute to heightened awareness of and intent to pursue STEM careers among students?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.