A New Approach to Evaluate Student Learning Outcomes Resulting From Participation in Remotely Operated Vehicle Competitions

全国对拥有内容、知识和技能的学生的需求日益增长，这些知识和技能为他们进入大学水平的技术人员教育计划和熟练的技术劳动力做好了准备。机器人竞赛是吸引STEM学科学生的热门场所，它们将学生、导师和机构与各种成功和吸引人的基于技术的项目联系起来。自2001年以来，海洋先进技术教育中心(Mate)一直在支持遥控潜水器(ROV)竞赛，以此作为一种方式，让学生对STEM感兴趣和参与，帮助他们发展21世纪的工作技能，并使他们能够在职业道路上展望自己。该项目将支持参加区域和国际ROV竞赛的高中生、社区大学和大学生确定他们需要通过该活动获得的知识和技能，清楚地看到他们需要改进的领域，并在他们继续接受教育和/或准备进入劳动力大军时利用这些知识。该项目建立在一套全面的赛后调查结果的基础上，并对其进行了扩展，这些调查结果支持ROV比赛对参与学生的价值，并与ATE计划的目标紧密结合。除了蒙特利半岛学院(MPC)的Mate中心外，该项目还汇集了纽约州立大学布法罗学院(布法罗州立大学)和卡尔顿学院科学教育资源中心(SERC)提供的技术资源。该项目建立在纽约州立大学布法罗州立大学开发的一种成功的评估方法EvaluateUR的基础上。EvaluateUR提供了详细的数据，衡量了一系列令人满意的学生结果，包括内容知识和对工作场所至关重要的结果，如沟通技能、创造力、自主性、克服障碍的能力、批判性思维和解决问题的技能。EvalateUR还为学生提供了“元认知”技能--了解他们在学业上的长处和短处，并更好地掌握自己的学习。该项目将调整EvalateUR的创新设计，以服务于参加Mate地区和国际ROV比赛的学生，支持教师顾问指导正在设计和制造ROV的学生，并就比赛的学术价值向Mate提供可靠的反馈。将支持以下目标：1)确保所有参加比赛的学生在参加比赛之初就知道他们应该掌握哪些具体的知识和技能，以便为进一步的教育和/或工作做准备；2)更准确地衡量每个学生在实现这种掌握方面取得了多少进步；3)以增强学生元认知能力的方式实现这些目标；以及4)为参加比赛的每个机构创建一个数据库，显示学生在特定知识和技能上的成长情况。还预计，其他机器人竞赛，如First、VEX、Botball和国际无人驾驶车辆系统协会(AUVSI)的陆地、空中和海洋计划套件，代表着这种方法的潜在用户，项目结果的传播将包括这些机器人社区以及其他国家协会和ATE PI社区。该项目由NSF高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There is a growing national demand for students who possess content knowledge and skills that prepare them to enter college level technician education programs and the skilled technical workforce. Robotics competitions are popular venues for engaging students in STEM disciplines, and they connect students, mentors, and institutions to a variety of successful and engaging technology-based programs. The Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE) has supported the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition since 2001 as a way to interest and engage students in STEM, help them develop 21st Century workplace skills, and enable them to envision themselves on career pathways. This project will support high school, community college, and college/university students who participate in regional and international ROV competitions to identify the knowledge and skills they need to gain through this activity, to see clearly the areas where they need to improve, and to use this knowledge to their advantage as they continue their education and/or prepare to enter the workforce. This project builds upon and extends findings obtained using a set of comprehensive post-competition surveys that support the value of the ROV competitions for participating students, and is strongly aligned with the goals of the ATE program. In addition to the MATE Center at Monterey Peninsula College (MPC), the project brings together the State University of New York College at Buffalo (Buffalo State), and the technical resources available through the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. This project builds on EvaluateUR, a successful evaluation method developed at SUNY Buffalo State. EvaluateUR provides detailed data measuring a broad range of desirable student outcomes that include both content knowledge and outcomes that are critically important in the workplace, such as communication skills, creativity, autonomy, an ability to overcome obstacles, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. EvaluateUR also provides students with "metacognition" skills - the ability to understand their academic strengths and weaknesses and take greater ownership of their own learning. The project will adapt the innovative design of EvaluateUR to serve students participating in MATE's regional and international ROV competitions, support faculty advisors as they mentor students who are designing and building ROVs, and provide reliable feedback to MATE about the academic value of the competitions. The following objectives will be supported: 1) Ensure that all students involved in the competitions know at the outset of their participation what specific knowledge and skills they should be mastering in order to prepare for additional education and/or the workplace; 2) Measure more precisely for each student how much growth he or she has demonstrated toward achieving such mastery; 3) Accomplish these goals in a way that strengthens student metacognitive abilities; and 4) Create a database, for each institution participating in the competitions, of reliable, statistically validated findings showing student growth on specific knowledge and skills. It is also anticipated that other robotics competitions, such as FIRST, VEX, Botball, and the Association of Unmanned Vehicle System International's (AUVSI) suite of land, air, and sea programs, represent potential users of this methodology, and dissemination of project results will include these robotics communities as well as other national associations and the ATE PI community. This project is funded by the NSF Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.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.