NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Exploring a Collaborative Model for Broadening Participation in STEM through Digital Fabrication and Making

在过去的二十年里，出现了数以千计的制造空间、制造实验室和数字制造空间。从图书馆、科学中心到高等教育机构，“创造者运动”的势头持续增强，并被全球公认为技术、创新和教育的结合点。这种日益增长的兴趣可能在一定程度上是因为现有研究取得了令人振奋的发现。普遍的研究表明，对制造和数字制造的有意义的参与可以在STEM的兴趣和职业中产生显著的积极结果，特别是在工程和制造领域。一些研究还表明，虽然结果总体上是积极的，但仍然有一个多样化的学习者社区，他们似乎参与不足或被排除在参与之外。这项计划拨款将通过创建和促进一个多元化的组织联盟来解决这一差距，以共同努力，并利用各自的影响力网络，通过制造和数字制造的视角，为所有学习者设计和促进创新、可访问、包容和公平的高质量STEM学习环境。通过一个多模式、活生生的文化体验框架，该联盟希望为一种战略性、连贯和可扩展的方法制定一项计划，在解决STEM的公平问题上大大推进这一门槛。这项努力将Maker、FAB实验室、数字制造和STEM教育运动中的关键利益相关者聚集在一起，创建一个共同的愿景和行动计划，以点燃更广泛、更具包容性的教育利益相关者群体，包括正式和非正式的。最初的组织将包括主要的国家和国际组织公民学校、数字承诺、FAB基金会、FabLearn、Maker Ed和Nation of Maker，以开始创建共同愿景的进程，并通过其网络将这一愿景传达给更广泛、更多样化的利益攸关方社区。在为期一年的项目期间，项目合作伙伴将利用现有的专业知识和网络共同努力，确定并倡导有效的文化相关的制定做法和政策，以增加STEM的参与度，并在代表性不足的群体中取得成功。工作将集中在NSF包括协作基础设施的五个设计元素中的两个：共享愿景、领导力和沟通。在制定共同议程的同时，共同愿景部分将包括几项加强活动：(1)绘制和分析相关的当前方案，(2)建立一套商定的公平和包容性的具体定义，(3)确定在学习者中确认现有知识基金的战略，以及(4)制定战略行动计划。加强领导和沟通部分的活动将包括：(1)建立协作支助模式和业务协议；(2)记录和交流整个组织方案的做法；(3)联合出版/政策白皮书，说明扩大参与制作和数字制造的情况。为了为这项工作奠定基础，将为伙伴组织举办一次公平和包容问题讲习班，以促进共同理解和集体影响。此外，还将通过知识、数据和资源共享、联网和参与在线社区的方式，有意与国家科学基金会建立联系，包括国家网络。如果成功，这笔规划拨款有可能为未来的大型中心、联盟或网络奠定坚实的基础，专注于通过制造和数字制造扩大对STEM的参与。该计划拨款由NSF纳入全国工程和科学领域未被充分代表的发现者的学习社区(NSF Includes)资助，这是一项综合性的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大对STEM的参与来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。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。

Over the past two decades, thousands of makerspaces, fabrication labs, and digital fabrication spaces have emerged. From libraries and science centers to institutions of higher education, the “Maker Movement” continues to gain momentum and is recognized globally as being at the nexus of technology, innovation, and education. This mounting interest may be in part due to promising findings from extant research. Prevailing studies show meaningful engagement in making and digital fabrication can result in marked positive outcomes in STEM interest and careers, especially in engineering and manufacturing fields. Some studies have also shown that while outcomes are generally positive, there continues to be a diverse community of learners who appear to be under-engaged and or excluded from participation. This planning grant will address this gap by creating and fostering a diverse coalition of organizations to work together, and with their respective networks of influence, to design for and promote innovative, accessible, inclusive, and equitable high-quality STEM learning environments for all learners through the lens of making and digital fabrication. Through a multi-modal, lived cultural experience framework, the coalition hopes to develop a plan for a strategic, coherent and scalable approach that moves the bar significantly forward in addressing equity in STEM. The effort brings together key stakeholders in the Maker, Fab Lab, Digital Fabrication, and STEM Education movements to create a shared vision and action plan that ignites a broader, more inclusive group of stakeholders in education, both formal and informal. The initial cohort of organizations will include the key national and international organizations Citizen Schools, Digital Promise, Fab Foundation, FabLearn, Maker Ed and Nation of Makers to begin the process of creating a shared vision, and communicating that vision throughout their networks to a broader and more diverse community of stakeholders. During the one-year project duration, project partners will leverage existing expertise and networks to work collectively to identify and pioneer effective culturally relevant making practices and policies that increase STEM engagement and success among underrepresented groups. Efforts will be centered on two of the five NSF INCLUDES design elements of collaborative infrastructure: Shared Vision and Leadership and Communication. In tandem with developing a common agenda, the Shared Vision component will include several reinforcing activities: (1) map and analyze relevant current programming, (2) establish a set of agreed upon equity and inclusion specific definitions, (3) identify strategies for recognizing existing funds of knowledge among learners, and (4) develop a strategic plan of action. Reinforcing activities for the Leadership and Communication component will include: (1) the establishment of a collaborative support model and operations protocol, (2) documentation and exchange of practices across organizational programming, and (3) a joint publication/policy white paper on the state of broadening participation in making and digital fabrication contexts. To ground this work, an equity and inclusion workshop will be held for partner organizations to promote shared understanding and collective impact. In addition, intentional connections will be made to the NSF INCLUDES National Network through knowledge, data, and resource sharing, networking, and participation in the online community. If successful, this planning grant has the potential to lay a strong foundation for a future large-scale center, alliance, or network focused on broadening participation in STEM through making and digital fabrication. This planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale.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.