Developing a Network to Coordinate Research on Equity Practices and Cultures in STEM Maker Education

美国国家科学基金会研究协调网络(RCN)计划的目标是通过支持研究人员团体跨越学科、组织、地理和国际边界来沟通和协调他们的研究、培训和教育活动，从而在研究或教育领域推进一个领域或创造新的方向。这个RCN将汇聚从事STEM教育公平和跨学科研究的学者和实践者。Making是一种强调兴趣驱动型学习的文化，通过在非正式的、同行主导的和创造性的社会环境中进行学习。全国各地已经发展了数百个创客空间和以创客为导向的课堂教学。制作空间通常包括数字技术，如计算机设计、3D打印机和激光切割机，但也可能包括传统工艺品或各种艺术家驱动的创作。该项目的主要目的是通过寻求共同的研究问题，共享资源，并在多个工作实践地点孵化新出现的调查和知识，共同扩大以STEM为重点的制造商在美国的参与。该网络旨在建设研究和知识的能力，建立相应的和影响深远的机制，以利用核心学者、从业人员和城市和农村地区的正式和非正式教育伙伴的广泛网络的共同努力，为在STEM中任职人数不足的群体提供服务。Maker学习空间可以成为STEM公平学习的特别富有成效的空间，因为它们促进了兴趣驱动的、集体的和以社区为导向的学习，以促进社会和社区的变革。该网络将由一个由来自美国不同地理区域的多机构和多学科研究人员组成的团队领导，并由一个由著名研究人员和从业人员组成的指导委员会指导，将召开会议，以促进网络活动。公平的进程植根于一种承诺，即理解和发展处于STEM边缘地位的社区的技能、做法、价值观和知识。该研究网络旨在填补目前对Making和Equity的理解空白，包括不同项目定义Making中的Equity和STEM的许多方式。该项目将调查现有的研究领域，以发展一个动态和连贯的理解制作，连接到学习者的STEM的想法，社区，和历史的制作方法。此外，该网络还将为网络合作伙伴协作开发中心研究问题。该网络将为基于社区的研究中的道德和有前途的做法创建一个储存库，并在其他活动中收集网站上的数据。该网络将支持全国各地各种制造空间、研究机构和社区组织之间的合作，以共享数据、方法、与当地社区联系的方式以及将STEM技能和实践强有力地整合的方法。项目影响将包括新的研究伙伴关系，与制造和公平有关的研究的传播中心，研究人员和从业人员的专业发展，以及利用关于制定价值观和实践的集体研究结果，以改进在非正式学习环境中进行STEM丰富的整合的方法。该项目由NSF的高级非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划支持各种环境中使用的创新研究、方法和资源。作为在非正式环境中加强学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划为各种环境中使用的创新研究、方法和资源提供资金。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。

The goal of the National Science Foundation’s Research Coordination Network (RCN) program is to advance a field or create new directions in research or education by supporting groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic and international boundaries. This RCN will bring together scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of equity and interdisciplinary making in STEM education. Making is a culture that emphasizes interest-driven learning by doing within an informal, peer-led and creative social environment. Hundreds of maker spaces and maker-oriented classroom pedagogies have developed across the country. Maker spaces often include digital technologies such as computer design, 3-D printers, and laser cutters, but may also include traditional crafts or a variety of artist-driven creations. The driving purpose of the project is to collectively broaden STEM-focused maker participation in the United States through pursuing common research questions, sharing resources, and incubating emergent inquiry and knowledge across multiple working sites of practice. The network aims to build capacity for research and knowledge, building in consequential and far-reaching mechanisms to leverage combined efforts of a core group of scholars, practitioners, and an extended network of formal and informal education partners in urban and rural sites serving people from groups underrepresented in STEM. Maker learning spaces can be particularly fruitful spaces for STEM learning toward equity because they foster interest-driven, collective, and community-oriented learning in making for social and community change. The network will be led by a team of multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary researchers from different geographic regions of the United States and guided by a steering committee of prominent researchers and practitioners in making and equity will convene to facilitate network activities. Equitable processes are rooted in a commitment to understand and build on the skills, practices, values, and knowledge of communities marginalized in STEM. The research network aims to fill in gaps in current understandings about making and equity, including the many ways different projects define equity and STEM in making. The project will survey the existing research terrain to develop a dynamic and cohesive understanding of making that connects to learners' STEM ideas, communities, and historical ways of making. Additionally, the network will collaboratively develop central research questions for network partners. The network will create a repository for ethical and promising practices in community-based research and aggregate data across sites, among other activities. The network will support collaboration across a multiplicity of making spaces, research institutions, and community organizations throughout the country to share data, methodologies, ways of connecting to local communities and approaches to robust integration of STEM skills and practices. Project impacts will include new research partnerships, a dissemination hub for research related to making and equity, professional development for researchers and practitioners, and leveraging collective research findings about making values and practices to improve approaches to STEM-rich making integration in informal learning environments. The project is funded by NSF's Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. 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 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.