Bridging Communities with Student STEM Stories: Culturally-Responsive Strategies for Motivating STEM Engagement in Diversifying Public Schools

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划的努力，通过开发和测试小学STEM教育的创新方法，更好地了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实践。年轻学生将调查他们的家庭和当地社区的故事，帮助他们更好地理解、欣赏和感兴趣STEM知识和技能如何直接影响他们的生活，并可能导致潜在的职业道路。利用地理信息系统(地理信息系统)和数字地图技术，两所公立小学3-5年级的学生将进行多模式研究项目，以说明STEM参与他们自己社区的例子。在老师和大学研究人员的帮助下，学生们将研究当地社区活动和资源中嵌入的科学和数学。学生将采访家庭和社区成员，了解他们在日常生活中如何使用数学和科学，他们科学和数学问题的重点将因年级而异，以符合不同年级和学生发展水平所强调的具体科学内容。教师将把学生的发现纳入与课堂相关的活动中，学生将与教师和研究人员密切合作，制作多媒体文物，其中包括嵌入学生创建的图钉的互动地图，这些图钉连接每个学生的STEM故事项目，包括视觉、音频文件和报告。这些文物将在全校范围内展示，让家长和其他社区成员参与打破种族和文化鸿沟。学生的研究还将发布在学校网站上，并通过社交媒体和出版物与其他教育工作者分享。这一研究和开发项目将考察与实施STEM课程模式相关的学生、教师和社区成果，该模式旨在将学生家庭环境构建为STEM丰富的社区。项目研究将以以下问题为指导：种族、民族和社会经济多元化的小学社区对学生STEM故事的调查、分析和传播如何影响：(A)小学生的科学、技术、工程和数学投入和成就结果？(B)教师对STEM及其教学做法的理解，特别是在涉及教师不同学生的情况下？以及(C)教育工作者、家长和学生对数学和科学以何种方式存在于所有学生的生活中的跨文化理解？研究人员将收集成就数据，并在干预前和干预后与教育工作者、学生和家长进行访谈，以衡量STEM动机和参与度的变化，以及对不同种族和民族社区对科学和数学的贡献和利用的理解。该项目的总体目标是通过STEM学习和参与加强学校、家庭、邻里和社区的联系。该项目旨在培养学生的研究和STEM技能、知识和性格；围绕STEM概念开发和加强小学教师课程和教学大纲；加强和扩大家长对STEM的理解，以包括这些学校的学生称之为家的不同社区背景。该项目将包括五个阶段：调查、社区探索、教学组织、公众参与和数字讲故事。在调查阶段，学生将与教师和研究人员合作，确定和探索对他们在学校、家庭和社区有意义的STEM概念，并为下一阶段设计研究方案。在社区探索阶段，学生将采访STEM在当地社区的主要代表，包括家庭成员、社区领袖和邻居，并整合基于网络的交互式地图上的数据，以传达他们的研究成果。在接下来的教学整合阶段，将有一系列的工作坊帮助学生开发STEM故事，并围绕这些故事设计教学任务和项目。在公众参与阶段和数字讲故事阶段，学生设计和分享与学生开发并由教师和项目助理分析的STEM故事相关的文物。将使用混合方法分析与调查和评估数据相关的定量分析，并解释对人工制品和访谈的定性分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 developing and testing an innovative approach to elementary school STEM education. Young students will investigate stories from their families and local communities that help them better understand, appreciate, and become interested in how STEM knowledge and skills directly impact their lives and could lead to potential career paths. Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) and digital mapping technologies, students in grades 3-5 at two public elementary schools will conduct multi-modal research projects to illuminate examples of STEM engagement in their own communities. With the aid of their teachers and university-based researchers, students will examine the science and mathematics embedded within the activities and resources of their local communities. Students will interview family and community members about how they use mathematics and science in their daily lives, and the focus of their scientific and mathematical inquiries will vary by grade level to align with the specific science content emphasized across grades and the developmental levels of the students. Teachers will incorporate student findings into class-related activities, and students, working closely with their teachers and researchers, will produce multimedia artifacts that include an interactive map embedded with student-created pins linking each student's STEM story project, including visuals, audio files and reports. These artifacts will be showcased during school-wide presentations to engage parents and other community members in breaking down racial and cultural divides. Student research will also be posted on the school websites and shared with other educators via social media and publications. This research and development project will examine student, teacher, and community outcomes associated with implementation of a STEM curriculum model that aims to frame student home environments as STEM-rich communities. Project research will be guided by the following question: How do racially, ethnically and socio-economically diverse elementary school communities' investigation, analysis and dissemination of students' STEM Stories affect: (a) Elementary students' science, technology, engineering, and mathematics engagement and achievement outcomes? (b) Teachers' understanding of STEM and their instructional practices, particularly as these relate to teachers' diverse students? And (c) Educators, parents and students intercultural understanding of the ways in which math and science exist in all students' lives? Researchers will collect achievement data and conduct pre- and post- intervention interviews with educators, students and parents to measure changes in STEM motivation and engagement as well as understandings of the contributions and utilization of science and mathematics across separate racial and ethnic communities. The overarching goal of this project is to strengthen school, family, neighborhood, and community ties through STEM learning and engagement. The project aims to develop student research and STEM skills, knowledge, and dispositions; to develop and enhance elementary teacher curricular and instructional repertoires around STEM concepts; and to enhance and broaden parent understanding of STEM to include the diverse community contexts that students in these schools call home. The project will consist of five stages: Inquiry, Community Exploration, Pedagogical Incorporation, Public Engagement, and Digital Storytelling. During the Inquiry phase, students will work with teachers and researchers to identify and explore STEM concepts meaningful to them in their schools, homes, and neighborhoods, and design a research protocol for the next phase. During the Community Exploration phase, students will interview key representatives of STEM in the local community, including family members, community leaders, and neighbors, and consolidate data on interactive, web-based maps that convey their research findings. In the Pedagogical Incorporation phase to follow, there will be a series of workshops to help students develop STEM stories and design instructional tasks and projects centered around them. During the Public Engagement phase and the Digital Storytelling phase, students design and share artifacts related to STEM stories developed by students and analyzed by teachers and project assistants. A mixed methods approach will be used to analyze quantitative associated with survey and assessment data and to interpret qualitative analysis of artifacts and interviews.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.