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。该项目的重点是环境健康素养，并将探讨在何种程度上不同的农村和城市青年在校外STEM丰富计划中表现出环境健康素养的收益，同时参与学习和教导他人在面对不断变化的气候时的社区复原力。科学中心和博物馆为年轻人提供了了解韧性的独特机会，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。在该项目中，参与的青年团队将通过四个学习模块取得进展，这些模块探讨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、可能的减缓和适应战略，以及建设社区的能力，使其具有气候抗御能力。在完成这些单元后，参与的青年将开展一个以守法为重点的行动项目。将鼓励参与者在项目的设计和实施中与同行、家人、朋友和其他社区利益攸关方接触，他们将获得获取当地气候和天气数据的经验，并通过相关门户网站分享他们的研究结果。参与者还将使用各种传感器和基于网络的工具来收集他们自己的数据。本研究由三个研究问题指导：1）通过参与博物馆主导的、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（综合考虑，复原力背景下的环境健康素养）？2)什么样的课程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知识有何不同，任何差异对项目复制意味着什么？ 该项目为期两年，将分六个阶段进行：a）第一年的材料开发，B）招募和挑选青年参与者，c）暑期学院（六天），d）暑期学院之后学年的讲习班和实地经验，e）与当地有关的行动项目，f）方案结束时的首脑会议（一天）。在寻求研究问题的答案，将使用各种数据来源，包括青年焦点小组和教育工作者访谈的成绩单，每个焦点小组和访谈的简短研究人员的反思，以及对与服从有关的知识的调查。 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名青年参与，每个青年有一名家长或监护人。这项研究将探讨农村和城市高中年龄青年参与互动、平行方案拟订的经验，使项目小组能够比较和对比农村和城市参与者在环境卫生知识方面的变化。预计这项研究将促进了解不同青年参与非正式学习环境如何影响对复原力的理解和环境卫生知识的发展，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用评估来支持。基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.