What leads to better outcomes in informal STEM-based environmental education programs for youth?

是什么导致基于 STEM 的非正式青年环境教育计划取得更好的成果？

• 批准号: 1906610
• 负责人: Robert Powell
• 金额: $ 194.48万
• 依托单位: Clemson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1906610&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: What; leads; better; outcomes; informal

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This project will examine the characteristics and outcomes of a large sample of environmental education field trip programs for youth to elucidate program characteristics that most powerfully influence 21st century learning outcomes. Environmental education programs for youth, particularly day-long school trip programs, are popular and reside at the intersection of formal and informal STEM education. Such field trips provide opportunities for diverse audiences to participate in shared learning experiences, but current understanding of what leads to success in these programs is limited. This large-scale study will address this gap in knowledge by investigating the linkages between program characteristics and participant outcomes for at least 800 single-day environmental education field trip programs for youth in grades 5-8, particularly programs for diverse and underserved audiences. This study will result in the identification of evidence-based practices that will inform future program design for a wide variety of settings, including nature centers, national parks, zoos, museums, aquaria, and other locations providing informal environmental education programs.This Research in Service to Practice study is guided by two research questions: 1) What program characteristics (context, design, and delivery) most powerfully influence learner self-determination and learner outcomes? And 2) Do the most influential program characteristics differ across diverse and underserved audiences (e.g. African American, Hispanic/Latino, economically disadvantaged) and contexts (e.g. rural versus urban)? This project will examine a wide range of program-related factors, including pedagogical approaches and contextual characteristics. A valid and reliable protocol for observing 78 program characteristics hypothesized to influence learner outcomes developed by a previous project will be used to systematically sample and observe 500 single-day environmental education field trip programs for youth in grades 5-8 distributed across at least 40 U.S. states and territories. Programs for diverse and underserved youth will be emphasized, and a diverse set of programs in terms of program type and context will be sought. Data from this sample will be combined with those of an existing sample of 334 programs provided by over 90 providers. The final combined sample of over 800 programs will provide sufficient statistical power to confidently identify which program components are most consistently linked with learning outcomes. This sample size will also enable stratification of the sample for examination of these relationships within relevant subpopulations. Principal component analyses will be used to reduce data in theoretically meaningful and statistically valid ways, and multilevel structural equation modeling will be employed to examine the influences of both participants' individual characteristics and program and context characteristics on participant outcomes. Since one research question focuses on whether program outcomes are the same across different audiences, the project will include at least 200 programs for each of three specific audiences to ensure sufficient statistical power for confidence in the results: primarily African American, primarily Hispanic/Latino, and primarily White.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整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助创新研究，方法和资源，用于各种环境。本计画将检视大样本青少年环境教育实地考察计画的特色与成果，以阐明最能影响21世纪世纪学习成果的计画特色。针对青少年的环境教育计划，特别是为期一天的学校旅行计划，很受欢迎，并且处于正式和非正式STEM教育的交叉点。这种实地考察为不同的观众提供了参与共享学习经验的机会，但目前对这些项目成功的理解是有限的。这项大规模的研究将通过调查至少800个为期一天的环境教育实地考察计划，为5-8年级的青少年，特别是为多样化和服务不足的观众节目的节目的节目特点和参与者的结果之间的联系，解决知识的差距。这项研究将导致以证据为基础的做法，将为各种各样的设置，包括自然中心，国家公园，动物园，博物馆，水族馆，和提供非正式环境教育计划的其他地点的未来计划设计的识别。这项服务于实践研究的研究是由两个研究问题指导：1）什么样的课程特征（情境、设计和交付）最有力地影响学习者的自我决定和学习成果？2）最具影响力的节目特征是否在不同的和服务不足的观众（例如非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔/拉丁裔，经济上处于不利地位）和背景（例如农村与城市）之间存在差异？该项目将研究广泛的方案相关因素，包括教学方法和背景特征。一个有效的和可靠的协议观察78个程序的特点假设影响学习者的成果，由以前的项目开发将被用来系统地抽样和观察500个为期一天的环境教育实地考察计划的青年在5-8年级分布在至少40个美国州和地区。将强调为多样化和服务不足的青年制定的方案，并将寻求在方案类型和背景方面制定一套多样化的方案。该样本的数据将与90多家供应商提供的334个项目的现有样本相结合。超过800个项目的最终合并样本将提供足够的统计能力，以自信地确定哪些项目组成部分与学习成果最一致。该样本量还可以对样本进行分层，以检查相关亚群内的这些关系。主成分分析将被用来减少数据在理论上有意义的和统计上有效的方式，和多层次结构方程模型将被用来检查参与者的个人特征和程序和背景特征对参与者的结果的影响。由于一个研究问题的重点是不同受众的项目结果是否相同，因此该项目将针对三个特定受众中的每一个至少包括200个项目，以确保有足够的统计能力对结果产生信心：主要是非洲裔美国人，主要是西班牙裔/拉丁裔，主要是白色。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值的支持和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Which approaches are associated with better outcomes? Evidence from a national study of environmental education field trip programs for adolescent youth in the United States

• DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2022.2145270
• 发表时间: 2022-11
• 期刊: Environmental Education Research
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: R. B. Powell;M. Stern;B. T. Frensley

Availability and distribution of environmental education field trip programs for adolescent students in the U.S.: a national study of spatial accessibility

• DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2023.2237706
• 发表时间: 2023-07
• 期刊: Environmental Education Research
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Tyler L. Hemby;R. B. Powell;M. Stern

Influence of educator’s emotional support behaviors on environmental education student outcomes

教育者情感支持行为对环境教育学生成果的影响

• DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2020.1800593
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Environmental Education Research
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: O’Hare, Anna;Powell, Robert B.;Stern, Marc J.;Bowers, Edmond P.
• 通讯作者: Bowers, Edmond P.

Is naturalness associated with positive learning outcomes during environmental education field trips?

自然性与环境教育实地考察期间的积极学习成果相关吗？

• DOI: 10.1080/00958964.2022.2157369
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Journal of Environmental Education
• 作者: Kiewra, Lydia;Powell, Robert B.;Stern, Marc J.;Hemby, Tyler;Browning, Matthew H.
• 通讯作者: Browning, Matthew H.

Influence of the natural setting on environmental education outcomes

• DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2020.1738346
• 发表时间: 2020-03-14
• 期刊: ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION RESEARCH
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Dale, Ryan G.;Powell, Robert B.;Garst, Barry A.
• 通讯作者: Garst, Barry A.