Strategies: Seeding the Future of STEM researchers through emerging agricultural technologies

波士顿学院的研究人员将在一个为期三年的途径框架中吸引高中年龄的青年，该框架将使青年参与进行真正的科学研究。该项目将涉及新兴的农业技术，如透明土壤（最近发现的一种水凝胶，表现得像土壤），近同行和以大学为重点的指导模式，以及与科学家的互动。年轻人将学习构建和编码Raspberry Pis（学生可以用来学习编程的小型经济型计算机），与农学家和植物科学家分享他们的数据。这项工作的成果目标是通过开展认真、严谨的科学研究的经验，使青年人具备强大的研究技能，为进入中学后机构做好准备。在整个三年项目期间，青年将参与大学一级正在进行的同类科学研究。具体而言，青年将学习：（一）构建工具（传感器连接到树莓派和传感器连接到IBM沃森软件系统提供的物联网网络基础设施），他们将用来收集他们的数据，（ii）进行严格的科学调查（确定问题，以及发现和最小化实验遏制，并确定因变量与自变量），以及（iii）与实践科学家合作，根据他们的数据开发模型和潜在的解释。该计划将招募低收入青年，以及波士顿公立学校高中科学代表性不足的青年，支持他们学习核心科学研究技能，并让他们参与构建他们将用于进行更复杂实验的工具。该计划不仅将培养青年参与者的能力，使他们能够做出潜在的科学发现，而且通过指导计划，青年领导人和导师将成为他们社区青年的榜样。首先，青年将参与科学研究实验室使用的尖端技术。其次，将组建一个由STEM职业发展专家、青年导师专家、科学家和科学教育工作者组成的多元化合作团队，以设计拟议的工作。第三，该计划是三个协同组成部分的独特组合：（1）近同伴指导方法，（2）STEM学习，（3）青年目标和职业发展。与其他校外STEM计划不同，该计划不仅支持STEM概念的学习，而且还将通过让年轻人踏上个人旅程来帮助他们发现STEM技能的相关性，以实现未来的职业抱负，并为中学后教育做好准备。第四，青年将与实践科学家分享的数据有可能帮助回答植物科学中关于植物，特别是它们的根部结构如何对环境压力作出反应的重要问题。该研究方法提供了一个机会，以研究这些结构的目的，批判意识和工作意志如何影响青年的意图，追求干领域。到目前为止，这些重要的结构还没有被认真考虑在STEM职业发展。因此，对近同伴指导的影响以及青年探索、追求和留在STEM领域的适应性和意向性的研究将为ITEST社区提供一个基于证据的模型，该模型将近同伴指导、科学研究、和STEM职业发展，以阐明年轻人如何成功地追求STEM领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过评估被认为值得支持使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Researchers at Boston College will engage high school aged youth in a three-year pathway framework that will engage the youth in conducting authentic scientific research. The project will involve emerging agricultural technologies like transparent soil (a recent discovery which is a hydrogel that behaves like soil), a near-peer and college-focused mentoring model, and interaction with scientists. The youth will learn to build and code Raspberry Pis (small and affordable computers that students can use to learn programming) to share their data with agronomists and plant scientists. The outcome goal for this work is to prepare youth to enter a post-secondary institution with strong research skills through experience in conducting careful, rigorous scientific research. Throughout the three-year project, youth will be engaged in the same type of scientific research that is occurring at the university level. Specifically, youth will learn: (i) to build the tools (sensors connected to Raspberry Pi and sensors connected to the Internet of Things web infrastructure provided by IBM Watson software system) they will use to collect their data, (ii) to carry out a rigorous scientific investigation (identifying questions, as well as finding and minimizing experimental containments, and determining dependent vs. independent variables), and (iii) to develop models and potential explanations based on their data in collaboration with practicing scientists. The program will recruit low-income youth, and youth from populations underrepresented in science from high schools in Boston Public Schools and support them in learning core scientific research skills and engage them in building the tools they will use to conduct their more complex experiments. The program will not only build the capacity of the youth participants to make potential scientific discoveries, but through the mentoring program youth leaders and mentors will become role models to youth in their community.There are four major aspects of the proposed work. First, youth will engage with cutting edge technologies being used in scientific research labs. Second, a diverse team of collaborators will be assembled consisting of STEM career development experts, Youth Mentoring experts, Scientists, and Science Educators to design the proposed work. Third, the program is a unique combination of three synergistic components: (1) a near-peer mentoring approach, (2) STEM learning, and (3) youth purpose and career development. Unlike other out-of-school STEM programs, this program will not only support the learning of STEM concepts, but it will do so by taking youth on a personal journey designed to help them discover the relevance of STEM skills for fulfilling future career aspirations, as well as preparing them for post-secondary education. Fourth, the data that youth will share with practicing scientists has the potential to help answer important questions in plant science regarding how plants, particularly their root structures, react to environmental stressors. The research approach provides an opportunity to examine how such constructs as purpose, critical consciousness, and work volition impact youths' intentions to pursue a STEM field. To date, these important constructs have not been seriously considered in STEM career development. Thus, the research on the impact of near-peer mentoring and youths' adaptability and intentionality to explore, pursue, and stay in STEM fields will provide the ITEST community with an evidence-based model integrating near-peer mentoring, scientific research, and STEM career development to elucidate how youth may successfully pursue a STEM field.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.