Broadening Participation by Middle-School Students in STEM via Integrating Hands-on Experiences in Science Learning

通过整合科学学习的实践经验扩大中学生对 STEM 的参与

• 批准号: 1811166
• 负责人: Meghan Hill
• 金额: $ 29.98万
• 依托单位: The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-11-01 至 2020-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1811166&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Broadening; Participation; Middle; Students; STEM

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This exploratory Pilot study project brings together a diverse set of partners that include the Watertown Children's Theatre (WCT) which is west of Boston, and, from Boston College a team of science educators, learning science researchers, and positive youth development experts. The goal is to design and develop a project for middle school-aged youth. The pilot project, which integrates hands-on science learning experiences, experiments, and field trips with the student-led production of short plays, will engage youth in expressing their beliefs, passions, and their own identities about STEM by examining how the intersection of skills and practices used in both domains (science and theatre) can enable them to learn about science concepts, principles and methods as well as to develop science-focused identities. Middle-school youth will be engaged in a three-week summer program where they will be led by science teachers, playwrights, and high school students to conduct hands-on investigations in science in conjunction with developing original, ten-minute plays around a specific scientific theme relevant to their life experience, for example, the potential impact on their lives of heavy metals in water and poor air quality. After a science theme is chosen, the principal investigators will identify the big ideas that are important for youth to understand and be able to explain. Upon identification of the key science ideas, youth will then engage in pertinent science activities, visits to local sites, reading current news articles and then in identifying the local impacts and how the underlying science relates to those local impacts. The youth will perform their ten-minute plays at the end of the summer program. Following this showcase event, they will engage in additional science learning experiences and also revise their productions throughout the academic year in preparation for a youth science festival, where their creations will be performed by professional adult actors as a part of the Cambridge Science Festival taking place in the spring. The broader impact of the work focuses on broadening participation in STEM, specifically, the engagement of youth from under-represented populations in the sciences, such as African-Americans, Latinxs, and women with partner Boston Public Schools. The Pilot study will investigate the student learning and organizational dimensions of the model being developed. The Boston College researchers will study youth's sense of purpose and identity toward science, particularly how youth's identity discrepancy changes through participation in the project. The work places youth voice at the center of the creation of STEM-based theatre plays. The theoretical foundation of the work is grounded in part in the concept of "path to purpose." The major research questions are: How do youth perceptions (interest, science anxiety, identity) toward science shift as they participate in the project? What is the residual impact on parents (family members) and youth on their discussions about science, and how does participation in the project impact those discussions? Research methods include surveys, interviews and observations. The external evaluation study will focus on understanding project implementation and progress toward meeting the project goals, in particular, how well the initiative works to establish a model for the informal STEM learning field that the team and others can apply beyond the Pilot study.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.

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。这个探索性的试点研究项目汇集了一系列不同的合作伙伴，包括位于波士顿西部的Watertown儿童剧院（WCT），以及来自波士顿学院的科学教育家、学习科学研究人员和积极青年发展专家团队。目标是为中学生设计和开发一个项目。该试点项目将实践科学学习经验、实验和实地考察与学生主导的短剧制作相结合，通过研究两个领域（科学和戏剧）中使用的技能和实践的交集如何使他们能够学习科学概念、原理和方法，以及发展以科学为中心的身份，让年轻人表达他们对STEM的信仰、激情和自己的身份。中学生将参与一个为期三周的暑期项目，他们将在科学教师、剧作家和高中生的带领下，围绕与他们生活经验相关的特定科学主题（例如，水中重金属和糟糕的空气质量对他们生活的潜在影响），进行亲身实践的科学调查，并开发原创的10分钟戏剧。在选定科学主题后，首席研究员将确定对青少年理解和能够解释的重要思想。在确定了关键的科学思想之后，青少年将参与相关的科学活动，参观当地的网站，阅读当前的新闻文章，然后确定当地的影响以及基础科学与这些当地影响的关系。青年们将在暑期节目结束时表演十分钟的戏剧。在这次展示活动之后，他们将参与额外的科学学习体验，并在整个学年中修改他们的作品，为青年科学节做准备，他们的创作将由专业的成人演员表演，作为春季剑桥科学节的一部分。这项工作的更广泛影响集中在扩大STEM的参与，特别是来自科学领域代表性不足的人群的年轻人的参与，比如非洲裔美国人、拉丁裔美国人，以及与波士顿公立学校合作的女性。试点研究将调查正在开发的模型的学生学习和组织维度。波士顿学院的研究人员将研究青年对科学的使命感和认同感，特别是青年的身份差异如何通过参与该项目而发生变化。这项工作将青年的声音置于stem戏剧创作的中心。本书的理论基础部分基于“通往目的之路”的概念。主要的研究问题是：青少年对科学的看法（兴趣、科学焦虑、认同）在参与项目时是如何转变的？对父母（家庭成员）和青少年讨论科学的剩余影响是什么？参与该项目如何影响这些讨论？研究方法包括调查、访谈和观察。外部评估研究将侧重于了解项目实施情况和实现项目目标的进展情况，特别是该计划如何有效地为非正式STEM学习领域建立模型，团队和其他人可以在试点研究之外应用该模型。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。