Green Infrastructure Technologies Inspire STEM Interest

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划的努力，以更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力的做法，让中学生参与城市绿色技术的科学和工程（例如，生物保持种植园、绿色屋顶和雨水花园）。通过培养学生对绿色基础设施（GI）技术的认识和理解，该项目将使学生成为能够研究、设计、管理、监测和维持未来GI系统的知情公民。该项目包括北方新泽西中学的学生，这些中学位于人口稠密的城市，受到联合下水道溢出、沿海沃茨水位上升、气候条件变化导致的频繁洪水和严重自然灾害（例如，2012年的飓风桑迪）。 中学教师和学生将与史蒂文斯理工学院生活实验室，一个国家的最先进的户外GI研究实验室，通过与研究人员互动，并通过课堂活动和实地考察经验。学生将能够虚拟地查看研究设施和实时事件，从而提高体验的可访问性。史蒂文斯理工学院的土木工程系与工程与科学教育创新中心（CIESE）的教育工作者合作，将为30名城市中学教师做好准备并提供支持，并积极让学生团队参与以设计为基础的课程活动，将工程与地球科学内容和实践相结合。学生将面临的挑战进行一系列的调查，以确定他们的学校或社区的雨水径流问题，使用调查结果来设计和测试模型，以解决保水问题，并制定一个解决使用一个或多个地理信息系统技术确定的问题的建议。问专家网络研讨会和虚拟图尔斯史蒂文斯生活实验室为学生提供了一个平台，与那些在地理信息相关的职业，如土木和环境工程师，城市规划师和生态学家，环境科学家，景观建筑师和园艺专家互动。学生调查与学生工作产品的检查相结合，学生与GI相关职业的互动记录，教师对课堂和实地考察活动的反馈将提供证据，证明对地理信息技术的理解在多大程度上激发了学生对地理信息的认识和兴趣，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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 engaging middle school students in the science and engineering of urban green technologies (e.g., bio retention planters, green roofs and rain gardens). By developing student awareness and understanding of Green Infrastructure (GI) technologies, the project will prepare students to become informed citizens who can research, design, manage, monitor and sustain GI systems of the future. The project includes students at northern New Jersey middle schools that are located within densely populated urban cities impacted by the effects of combined sewer overflows, rising coastal waters, frequent flooding resulting from changing climatic conditions, and severe natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Sandy in 2012). Middle school teachers and students will engage with the Stevens Institute of Technology Living Laboratory, a state-of-the-art outdoor GI research laboratory, by interacting with researchers and through classroom activities and fieldwork experiences. Students will be able to view research facilities and real-time events virtually, thus improving accessibility of the experiences. Civil Engineering faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology, in collaboration with educators at the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE), will prepare and support 30 urban middle school teachers and actively engage teams of students in design-based curricular activities that infuse engineering with earth science content and practices. Students will be challenged to conduct a series of investigations to identify the storm water runoff issues for their school or community, use the findings to design and test a model to address the water retention issues, and develop a proposal for addressing the identified issues using one or more GI technologies. Ask-an-Expert webinars and virtual tours of the Stevens Living Laboratory provide a platform for students to interact with those in GI-related careers such as civil and environmental engineers, urban planners and ecologists, environmental scientists, landscape architects and horticultural specialists. Student surveys combined with an examination of student work products, records of student interactions with those in GI-related careers, and teacher feedback on classroom and fieldwork activities will provide evidence of the extent to which an understanding of GI technologies stimulates student awareness of and interest in GI-related careers and education.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.