Fostering Aptitudes, Attitudes and Aspirations of Girls in STEM Through 4D Printing of Robotic Materials

为了支持国家对未来工作的需求，学校和非正式学习机构将机器人和编程等STEM主题纳入课程。然而，目前吸引女孩的STEM活动有限。女性在计算机科学、工程和物理科学等STEM领域的代表性仍然不足。通过培养年轻女孩对STEM领域的兴趣，该项目旨在教育和参与，从而促进她们对STEM相关职业和成为领导者的愿望。该项目通过涉及尖端4D打印机器人材料技术的活动，为女孩带来了动手，兴趣驱动的学习。4D打印是一个研究领域，涉及动态形式的数字制造，例如打印过程，产生能够在热或其他物理刺激下自动折叠成3D形状的平面物体。在这种情况下，机器人材料是指具有动态行为的物质，可以感知、响应和行动。该项目将开发和研究一个以机器人材料4D打印为中心的新型计算设计环境，通过跨学科的设计领域，包括可变形的食物、动态时尚和自折叠装饰，培养女孩的好奇心和信心。要建模的材料示例包括意大利面烹饪和夹克折叠。该项目将开发新的机器人材料设计工具，通过教育和有趣的工作与年轻女性，在社区中心，在社会经济多样化的社区。本研究利用技术创新，通过动手、跨学科的制作来促进STEM教育的包容性和公平性，对教育研究、计算设计和机器人材料的开发具有重要意义。它将通过4D机器人材料设计环境和相关课程的情境化开发，努力推进女童的包容性STEM教育。迭代设计将通过非正式学习环境中的研讨会进行的研究来执行。该项目将吸引初中和高中女生参与创造性游戏和结构化任务的结合，使用4D机器人变形材料，调查三个研究问题。(1)如何支持他们学习STEM概念和技能？(2)如何挑战她们对自身STEM能力的先入为主的态度，缩小已有的性别知识差距，减少刻板印象威胁？(3)如何帮助女孩获得新的自信和STEM职业抱负？调查将结合建构主义的实践学习与基于设计的民族志行动研究方法、开放式作品集和基于人工制品的访谈。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。

To support national needs for the future of work, schools and informal learning institutions integrate STEM topics, such as robotics and programming, into curricula. However, current STEM activities that appeal to girls are limited. Women remain underrepresented in STEM fields, such as computer science, engineering, and the physical sciences. By fostering interests of young girls in STEM areas, this project seeks to teach and engage, and so promote their aspiration towards STEM-related careers and becoming leaders. This project brings hands-on, interest-driven learning to girls through activities involving cutting edge 4D printed robotic material technologies. 4D printing is a research area involving digital fabrication of dynamic forms, such as printing processes that produce flat objects capable of self-folding into 3D shapes when triggered by heat or other physical stimuli. Robotic materials, in this context, refer to substances, which have dynamic behaviors, and can sense, respond and act. This project will develop and study a new computational design environment centered on 4D printing of robotic materials to foster curiosity and confidence among girls through interdisciplinary design areas, including shape-changing food, dynamic fashion, and self-folding decor. Examples of materials to be modeled include pasta cooking and a jacket folding. The project will develop the new robotic materials design tool through educational and fun work with young women, in community centers, in socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods.This research uses technology innovation to work for inclusiveness and equity in STEM education through hands-on, interdisciplinary making, with implications for educational research, computational design, and the development of robotic materials. It will work to advance inclusive STEM education for girls through contextualized development of a 4D robotic materials design environment and associated curriculum. Iterative design will be performed through studies conducted via workshops in informal learning environments. The project will engage middle and high school girls in a combination of creative play and structured tasks, with 4D robotic morphing materials, to investigate three research questions. (1) How to support their learning STEM concepts and skills? (2) How to challenge their preconceived attitudes about their own abilities in STEM, narrow the pre-existing knowledge gap between genders, and decrease stereotype threats? (3) How to contribute to girls gaining new confidence and STEM career aspirations? The investigation will combine constructivist learning through doing with design-based approaches of ethnographic action research, open portfolio, and artifact-based interviews.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.