Youth Engaging in the Science of Resilience in Urban and Rural NC (YES-Resilience)

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）项目资助了用于各种环境的创新研究、方法和资源。该项目侧重于环境健康素养，并将探索参加校外STEM丰富计划的不同农村和城市青年在多大程度上在环境健康素养方面取得进展，同时参与学习和教授他人面对气候变化的社区复原力。科学中心和博物馆为年轻人提供了学习适应力的独特机会，因为它们将社区成员聚集在一起，研究当前科学影响当地决策的方式。在这个项目中，参加项目的青年团队将通过四个学习模块取得进展，这些模块探索气候变化对当地社区的影响、与这些变化相关的当地脆弱性和风险、可能的缓解和适应战略，以及建设社区抵御气候变化的能力。在完成这些模块后，参与的青年将开展一个以复原力为重点的行动项目。参与者将被鼓励与同行、家人、朋友和其他社区利益相关者一起设计和实施他们的项目，他们将获得获取当地气候和天气数据的经验，并通过相关的门户网站分享他们的发现。参与者还将使用各种传感器和基于网络的工具来收集自己的数据。本研究以三个研究问题为指导：1)通过参与以博物馆为主导、以复原力为重点的项目，青年在多大程度上发展了知识、技能和自我效能，以发展社区复原力（在复原力的背景下，环境健康素养）？2)什么样的程序特点和设置促进了这些科学学习成果？3)农村和城市青年的环境卫生素养有何差异，这些差异对项目复制意味着什么？在为期两年的时间里，该项目将分六个阶段进行：a)第一年的材料开发，b)青年参与者的招募和选择，c)暑期学院（6天），d)暑期学院之后学年的研讨会和实地体验，e)当地相关的行动项目，f)项目结束峰会（一天）。在寻求研究问题的答案时，将使用各种数据来源，包括青年焦点小组和教育者访谈的成绩单，每个焦点小组和访谈的简要研究人员反思，以及与弹性相关知识的调查。定量数据来源将包括人口调查和对青少年自我效能工具的反应。该项目将直接吸引32名青少年，每位青少年由一名家长或监护人参与。该研究将探讨农村和城市高中年龄青年参与互动、并行规划的经验，使项目团队能够比较和对比农村和城市参与者在环境卫生素养方面的变化。预计这项研究将促进了解不同青年在非正式学习环境中的参与如何影响对复原力的理解和环境健康素养的发展，并将深入了解研究型大学和非正式科学中心之间的伙伴关系在关注社区复原力方面的作用。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。

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 focuses on environmental health literacy and will explore the extent to which diverse rural and urban youth in an out-of-school STEM enrichment program exhibit gains in environmental health literacy while engaged in learning and teaching others about community resilience in the face of changing climates. Science centers and museums provide unique opportunities for youth to learn about resilience, because they bring community members together to examine the ways that current science influences local decisions. In this project, teams of participating youth will progress through four learning modules that explore the impacts of changing climates on local communities, the local vulnerabilities and risks associated with those changes, possible mitigation and adaptation strategies, and building capacities for communities to become climate resilient. After completion of these modules, participating youth will conduct a resilience-focused action project. Participants will be encouraged to engage peers, families, friends, and other community stakeholders in the design and implementation of their projects, and they will gain experience in accessing local climate and weather data, and in sharing their findings through relevant web portals. Participants will also use various sensors and web-based tools to collect their own data.This study is guided by three research questions: 1) To what extent do youth develop knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy for developing community resilience (taken together, environmental health literacy in the context of resilience) through participation in museum-led, resilience-focused programming? 2) What program features and settings foster these science learning outcomes? And 3) How does environmental health literacy differ among rural and urban youth, and what do any differences imply for project replication? Over a two-year period, the project will proceed in six stages: a) Materials Development during the first year, b) Recruitment and selection of youth participants, c) Summer institute (six days), d) Workshops and field experiences during the school year following the summer institute, e) Locally relevant action projects, and f) End-of-program summit (one day). In pursuing answers to the research questions, a variety of data sources will be used, including transcripts from youth focus groups and educator interviews, brief researcher reflections of each focus group and interview, and a survey of resilience-related knowledge. Quantitative data sources will include a demographic survey and responses to a self-efficacy instrument for adolescents. The project will directly engage 32 youth, together with one parent or guardian per youth. The study will explore the experiences of rural and urban youth of high school age engaged in interactive, parallel programming to enable the project team to compare and contrast changes in environmental health literacy between rural and urban participants. It is anticipated that this research will advance knowledge of how engagement of diverse youth in informal learning environments influences understanding of resilience and development of environmental health literacy, and it will provide insights into the role of partnerships between research universities and informal science centers in focusing on community resilience.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.