NNA Track 2: Exploring the potential of digital education frameworks to build understanding of socioecological impacts of Alaskan environmental change

导航新北极（NNA）是美国国家科学基金会的十大构想之一。NNA项目解决快速变化的北极地区的融合科学挑战。北极研究需要为国家、更大地区和全球的经济、安全和复原力提供信息。NNA支持从地方到国际规模的新研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当情况下整合知识的共同生产。该奖项通过支持具有明确潜力的规划活动，以开发新颖，领先的研究理念和方法来实现NNA目标，从而实现了该目标的一部分。它整合了自然环境和社会系统的各个方面，解决了重要的社会挑战，建立了重要的教育机会，并吸引了当地和土著社区。随着北极变暖，社会和环境的变化威胁着北极、北极居民和他们的生活方式。减轻这些变化的影响必须包括教育年轻人了解所涉及的复杂相互作用，因为随着时间的推移，他们这一代将经历越来越大的影响。许多科学概念，如气温上升和二氧化碳水平，很难教授和理解，因为它们实际上是看不见的，而它们的影响，如鲑鱼被变暖的水的热应激杀死，则是非常明显的。该项目正在探索有效的方法，通过互动式教育游戏来教授具有挑战性的社会和环境变化问题，以及潜在的缓解解决方案，其中包含基于阿拉斯加土著知识和价值观的基于证据和文化响应的嵌入式评估。该项目的最终目标是利用这项探索性研究的结果，为阿拉斯加、北极及其他地区的学生开发和评估交互式STEM模拟框架的教育潜力。WGBH教育基金会，与阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学合作；加州大学洛杉矶分校国家评价、标准和学生测试研究中心；咨询公司Raven 's Group；将领导一个包容性和有意义的研究过程，以设计一个引人入胜和有效的教育STEM模拟框架。该团队将与教育工作者、游戏设计师、研究人员、阿拉斯加土著和非土著家庭以及社区中心一起进行头脑风暴会议、访谈、焦点小组、机制测试和文化响应性评估开发。通过这种形成性的工作，该团队将开发框架的内容、学习目标和与标准一致的课程，以及旨在支撑学生进步并展示学生如何很好地达到框架的学习目标的嵌入式评估。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。

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by supporting planning activities with clear potential to develop novel, leading edge research ideas and approaches to address NNA goals. It integrates aspects of the natural environment and social systems, addresses important societal challenges, builds significant educational opportunities, and engages local and Indigenous communities.As the Arctic warms, social and environmental changes threaten the Arctic, its inhabitants, and their ways of life. Mitigating the effects of these changes must include educating young people about the complex interactions involved since their generation will experience the growing impacts over time. Many science concepts, such as rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, are challenging to teach and understand because they are literally invisible, while their effects, such as salmon killed by the heat stress of warming water, are all too visible. This project is exploring effective ways to teach challenging issues of social and environmental change, and potential mitigation solutions, through interactive educational game play with embedded assessments that are evidence-based and culturally responsive, rooted in Alaska Indigenous knowledge and values. The ultimate goal of the project is to use the findings from this exploratory research to develop and assess the educational potential of an interactive STEM simulation framework for students in Alaska, the Arctic, and beyond. WGBH Educational Foundation, in partnership with the University of Fairbanks Alaska; National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA; and Raven’s Group, a consultancy; will lead an inclusive and meaningful research process towards designing an engaging and effective educational STEM simulation framework. The team will join together educators, game designers, researchers, Alaskan Indigenous and non-Indigenous families, and community centers in brainstorming sessions, interviews, focus groups, mechanics testing, and culturally responsive assessment development. Through this formative work, the team will develop the framework’s content, learning goals, and standards-aligned curriculum along with embedded assessments designed to scaffold students’ progress and demonstrate how well the students have reached the learning goals of the framework.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.