Exploratory: Life STEM: Promoting STEM Career Awareness, Engagement, and Identity, via a Culturally Relevant and Technology-Infused STEM-Based Curriculum

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的动机和能力的做法，通过参与实践现场经验，追求科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域的职业生涯，实验室/基于项目的创业任务和指导经验。NSF ITEST计划支持对设计，开发，实施，和选择性传播创新策略，让学生参与技术丰富的经验。这个学生和教师创新技术经验项目将使代表性不足的少数民族（URM）3 - 5年级学生接触到一系列科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）职业，并通过试点一个新的STEM学院，以技术和文化相关的STEM职业为基础的模块，促进积极的STEM身份。这个为期2年的探索性项目将开发一个可持续的计划，以吸引URM学生，使他们了解STEM职业，并激励他们考虑STEM职业的教育途径。该项目将通过少数群体服务机构与联邦指定为低绩效重点或优先学校的小学之间的伙伴关系，为学生、教师和家庭创造培训和指导机会。该项目还将推进与教育，心理和家庭因素相关的知识，这些因素可能决定URM学生是否坚持STEM教育到职业管道。该项目将通过开发和实施文化相关和响应模块来加强3 - 5年级STEM课程。该项目将探讨影响URM学生在STEM学习和效能的因素，同时为教师开发一个平台，以更好地了解社会文化和环境对URM学生参与STEM和对STEM职业兴趣的影响。四个主要目标如下：1）发展有效的伙伴关系，促进教师，学生，家长/家庭和STEM职业合作伙伴之间的协作和协同STEM学习生态系统; 2）利用最佳实践创建一个有目的的，经过股东审查的，文化相关的，技术丰富的STEM学院，旨在促进STEM职业意识; 3）开发一个反思性的顶点项目，鼓励应用在学院期间获得的想法，技能和知识，以及4）开发有目的的机制，并利用创新技术来弥合学校和家庭学习之间的差距。项目目标将采用混合方法设计进行评估，包括调查、绘制科学家测试（DAST）、顶点项目和焦点小组的反馈。 这些数据源将阐明技术注入的文化相关的教学干预对STEM职业知识，科学/科学家身份和STEM自我效能的影响。因此，该项目将吸引学生和利益相关者，同时特别关注通过STEM学院建立学生的STEM身份。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.The NSF ITEST program supports research on the design, development, implementation, and selective spread of innovative strategies for engaging students in technology-rich experiences.This Innovative Technology Experience for Students and Teachers project will expose underrepresented minority (URM) 3rd-5th grade students to a range of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers, and promote positive STEM identities by piloting a novel STEM Academy infused with technology and culturally relevant STEM career-based modules. This 2-year exploratory project will develop a sustainable program to engage URM students, make them aware of STEM careers, and motivate them to consider educational pathways to STEM careers. This project will create training and mentoring opportunities for students, teachers, and families through a partnership between a minority-serving institution and elementary schools that are federally designated as low-performing focus or priority schools. The project will also advance knowledge related to educational, psychosocial, and family factors that may determine whether URM students persist in the STEM education-to-career pipeline. This project will enhance 3rd-5th grade STEM curricula by developing and implementing culturally relevant and responsive modules. The project will explore factors influencing URM students' learning and efficacy in STEM, while developing a platform for teachers to better understand socio-cultural and environmental impacts on URM students' engagement in STEM and interest in STEM careers. The four major goals are as follows: 1) develop an effective partnership that promotes a collaborative and synergistic STEM Learning Ecosystem between teachers, students, parents/families and STEM career partners; 2) utilize best practices to create an intentional, stakeholder-vetted, culturally relevant, and technology-rich STEM Academy geared toward promoting STEM occupational awareness; 3) develop a reflective capstone project that encourages application of ideas, skills, and knowledge gained during the Academy, and 4) develop purposeful mechanisms and utilize innovative technologies to bridge the gap between at-school and at-home learning. The project goals will be evaluated utilizing a mixed methods design including surveys, the Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST), the capstone project, and feedback from focus groups. These data sources will elucidate the impact of the technology-infused culturally relevant pedagogical interventions on STEM career knowledge, science/scientist identity, and STEM self-efficacy. Hence, the project will engage both students and stakeholders while focusing specifically on building students' STEM identities via a STEM AcademyThis 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.