Strategies: Clean Energy and Environmental Science Career Pathways

策略：清洁能源和环境科学职业道路

• 批准号: 1849958
• 负责人: Kevin Cuff
• 金额: $ 119.87万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-15 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1849958&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Strategies; Clean; Energy; Environmental; Science

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging the students in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences. the project will engage a diverse population of youth residing in low-income, urban communities in the East San Francisco Bay Area in a combination of technology-enabled STEM learning, skills development, training and research activities specifically designed to stimulate interest in clean energy and environmental science-related career pathways. The students will engage in interventions through a clean energy and environmental science-related curriculum The project will investigate the capacity of two career pathway models to stimulate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) interest and career awareness among underrepresented "opportunity youth" (i.e., those between the ages of 16 and 24 years old enrolled in non-traditional educational programs and not working). The project will produce a set of effective clean energy and environmental science-related instructional resources useful in helping to improve STEM literacy among youth residing in urban areas. The project will be assessed through qualitative data derived from observations and structured interviews with individuals and small groups of participants throughout their pathway experiences. Project implementation will occur in close collaboration with two local organizations that specialize in offering programs for opportunity youth. The project will engage youth enrolled in programs operated by these organizations in carefully designed sequences of hands-on activities that address important STEM subject matter related to clean energy and environmental science. Summer and after school components will serve as its primary content assimilation mechanism. Approximately sixty new youth will participate in project activities each year over the course of the project's three-year implementation. These youths will engage in hands-on, materials-centered activities designed to aid in the development of STEM understandings and skills that increase capacity and confidence necessary for effectively pursuing future academic and career-related endeavors. Research questions are: 1) What is the impact that a given pathway model has on affecting career interest, preparation, and trajectory? and 2) Can these models be successful in impacting how youth value the application of STEM? The project takes an innovative approach to broadening participation in STEM by addressing STEM workforce inequities and engaging a population of students not in the traditional school setting in STEM learning. The project will provide information about how to re-engage students who are currently disconnected from the STEM pipeline. In this way, the findings of this research would move beyond addressing leaks in the pipeline to addressing how to move individuals back into the pipeline.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.

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划的努力，通过让学生参与实地实践、实验室/项目创业任务和指导经验，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。该项目将吸引居住在东旧金山湾区低收入城市社区的不同青年群体，通过技术支持的STEM学习、技能发展、培训和研究活动相结合，专门设计用于激发对清洁能源和环境科学相关职业道路的兴趣。该项目将调查两种职业路径模型的能力，以激发未被充分代表的“机会青年”（即年龄在16至24岁之间，参加非传统教育项目且没有工作的人）对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的兴趣和职业意识。该项目将制作一套有效的清洁能源和环境科学相关的教学资源，有助于提高居住在城市地区的青年的STEM素养。项目将通过观察所得的定性数据进行评估，并对个人和小组参与者进行结构化访谈，以了解他们的路径经历。项目的实施将与两个专门为有机会的青年提供项目的当地组织密切合作。该项目将吸引参加这些组织运营的项目的青年参与精心设计的实践活动序列，这些活动涉及与清洁能源和环境科学相关的重要STEM主题。暑期和课后内容将成为其主要的内容同化机制。在项目的三年实施过程中，每年约有60名新青年参加项目活动。这些年轻人将参与以实践为中心的活动，旨在帮助发展对STEM的理解和技能，从而提高有效追求未来学术和职业相关努力所需的能力和信心。研究的问题是：1)给定的路径模型对职业兴趣、准备和轨迹的影响是什么？2)这些模式能否成功影响年轻人对STEM应用的评价？该项目采用创新方法，通过解决STEM劳动力不平等问题，并吸引非传统学校环境中的学生参与STEM学习，从而扩大STEM的参与度。该项目将提供有关如何重新吸引目前与STEM管道断开的学生的信息。通过这种方式，这项研究的发现将超越解决管道泄漏的问题，而是解决如何将个人转移回管道中的问题。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。