Design and Development: Diversifying Engineering via Identity-Congruent Education (DE-ICE)

研究表明，在早期不能将自己视为工程师的学生，在以后的生活中不太可能追求工程职业。对于可能不容易参加学术和课外活动的学生来说尤其如此，包括来自农村和城市人口的不同类型的学生。研究表明，将与工程相关的教育游戏纳入中学课程可以帮助学生形成工程师的身份。这个项目主要关注四年级的学生，因为这是一个关键的年龄，在这个年龄，许多来自代表性不足群体的学生选择退出工程教育轨道。这个项目为四年级教室开发和引入了展示工程概念的教育游戏。这些游戏是与老师共同设计的，玩这些游戏的效果将从学生的工程感以及他们对工程的认同感的角度进行研究。这项研究将从学生那里收集有关他们相关教育经历的各种数据。这些数据，包括笔记本条目、访谈和焦点小组，将帮助研究人员调查和推广此类游戏的功效，以促进中学生认同在工程领域寻求职业道路的潜力。教育游戏体验的描述、课堂实施和对学生工程身份形成的评估将免费分享。最近的研究表明，当采用文化响应、长期突出和身份一致的综合框架时，小型教育干预具有巨大的积极影响。此外，基于数字游戏的学习在基础工程教育中显示出了巨大的前景。该项目将通过基于数字游戏的学习体验来实施基于身份的动机框架，旨在促进不同小学生的工程身份形成。评估学生的工程认同将使用工具，包括“画一个工程师测试”和“工程认同发展量表”。基于身份的动机框架将告知干预措施，其中将包括学生创造将交互地解决基本工程问题的工程角色。这些干预措施将整合数学和科学的人道主义工程应用，将课程计划映射到下一代科学标准，并与蒙大拿州《印度全民教育法》中的基本理解保持一致。对学生干预后工程认同的评估将加强对访谈、焦点小组和游戏人工制品的分析，以阐明有效促进工程认同形成的干预特征。数据收集和分析将依靠创新的定性方法，包括效果矩阵和网络分析，以确定教育干预经验对学生工程认同的影响。这种混合方法的研究将使学生更深入地了解学生对工程的态度和倾向，以及影响他们的干预设计、开发和/或经验的特点。这项研究还将导致可采用的教育干预措施，旨在鼓励在不同的学生群体中形成工程身份。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。

Studies show that students who are not able to see themselves as an engineer at an early age are less likely to pursue engineering careers later in life. This can be especially true of students who may not have easy access to academic and extracurricular activities, including diverse students from rural and urbans populations. Research has shown that incorporating engineering-related educational games into middle school curricula can help students develop an identity as an engineer. This project focuses on fourth grade students because this is a pivotal age where many students from underrepresented groups opt out of an engineering educational trajectory. This project develops and introduces educational games for fourth grade classrooms that demonstrate engineering concepts. The effect of playing these games, which are co-designed with teachers, will be studied in terms students' sense of engineering and how the way they identify with engineering as a result. The study will collect a variety of data from students about their related educational experiences. The data, including notebook entries, interviews, and focus groups, will help researchers investigate and generalize the efficacy of such games for promoting helping middle school students identify with the potential to pursue a career path in engineering. Descriptions of the educational game experiences, their classroom implementations, and assessments on student engineering identity formation will be shared freely.Recent studies show large positive effects of small educational interventions when employing integrative frameworks that are culturally-responsive, chronically-salient and identity-congruent. Additionally, digital game-based learning has demonstrated significant promise in elementary engineering education. This project will operationalize the identity-based motivation framework via digital game-based learning experiences aimed at enhancing engineering identity formation of diverse elementary students. Assessment of students' engineering identity will be made using instruments including the "Draw an Engineer Test" and the "Engineering Identity Development Scale." The identity-based motivation framework will inform the interventions, which will include students' creation of engineering characters who will interactively solve basic engineering problems. The interventions will integrate humanitarian engineering applications of math and science, with lesson plans mapped to the Next Generation Science Standards and aligned with Essential Understandings within Montana's Indian Educational for All Act. Assessment of students' post-intervention engineering identities will augment analyses of interviews, focus groups and game play artifacts in elucidating intervention features effective in enhancing engineering identity formation. Data collection and analysis will rely on innovative qualitative methods, including effects matrices and network analyses, to determine the influence of the educational intervention experiences on students' engineering identity. This mixed-method research will result in a deeper understanding of students' attitudes and dispositions toward engineering, and the features of the intervention design, development and/or experiences that influenced them. This research will also result in adoptable educational interventions designed to encourage engineering identity formation in a diverse group of 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.