Design and Development: NSF Engineering Research Centers Unite: Developing and Testing a Suite of Instruments to Enhance Overall Education Program Evaluation

美国国家科学基金会工程研究中心联合项目旨在开发和测试一套全面的工具，旨在加强对美国国家科学基金会资助的工程研究中心（ERC）提供的教育和多样性项目的评估。ERC教育和多元化规划，包括本科生、研究生和博士后学者的学年活动，以及本科生、高中生、K-12教师和社区大学讲师的暑期项目，是传播中心活动中新兴知识的机制。评估这些大型多机构中心提供的项目的有效性，以确保它们在ERC技术研究之外的影响，这一点至关重要。由评估工具箱补充的整套仪器将填补现有的空白，并允许中心以以前不可能的方式进行合作。这将加深我们对伦理委员会及其对技能发展、包容氛围和未来STEM劳动力发展的整体影响的理解。该项目由亚利桑那州立大学三erc教育联盟（TEEC）领导，该联盟由教育领袖、研究人员和评估人员组成，他们与三个目前资助的erc有关——生物介导和生物启发岩土技术中心（CBBG）、纳米系统纳米水处理中心（NEWT）和量子能源和可持续太阳能技术中心（QESST）。该团队要承担的目标包括：1)确定当前资助的ERCs的评估需求，2)创建一套评估工具，3)创建评估工具箱，以及4)使我们的资源广泛可用。我们将根据当前ERCs的需求和观点创建定量（如调查）和定性（如访谈、焦点小组和实验室观察协议）措施。这些仪器将在TEEC的erc和其他表示有兴趣使用这套仪器的参与erc进行现场测试。这些工具将附带一个评估人员工具箱，旨在支持和指导评估人员使用这些工具。这些资源将加倍作为创建ERC社区实践评估的手段。由此产生的资源将通过目前使用的ERC网站/中心以电子方式广泛提供。此外，定量多ERC仪器（MERCI）将转换为一个在线ERC评估系统，便于评估人员访问。拟议的制度将特别精简定量评价，这将为中心评价人员选择使用的定性评价方法提供更大的灵活性和创造性。众多伦理委员会对这些共享资源的采用，将为跨伦理委员会的比较提供前所未有的机会。研究结果将对erc如何评估其教育和多元化项目产生重大影响，并为有效评估任何提供类似教育和多元化项目的大型中心提供一套潜在的工具。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。

The NSF Engineering Research Centers Unite project aims to develop and test a comprehensive set of instruments designed to enhance the evaluation of education and diversity programs offered by NSF-funded Engineering Research Centers (ERC). ERC education and diversity programming, including academic year activities with undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars plus summer programs for undergraduate students, high school students, K-12 teachers, and community college instructors, is a mechanism to disseminate emerging knowledge from center activities. It is critically important that programs offered by these large, multi-institutional centers be evaluated for effectiveness to ensure their impact beyond ERC technical research. The resulting suite of instruments supplemented by an evaluator toolbox will fill an existing void and allow centers to collaborate in ways previously not possible. This will enhance our understanding of ERCs and their overall impact on skill development, climate of inclusion, and future STEM workforce development.This project is led by the Arizona State University Tri-ERC Education Consortium (TEEC), which consists of education leaders, researchers, and evaluators associated with three currently funded ERCs - Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG), Nanosystems Center for Nano-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), and Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST). The goals to be undertaken by this team include: 1) identifying the evaluation needs of currently funded ERCs, 2) creating a suite of evaluation instruments, 3) creating an evaluator toolbox, and 4) making our resources broadly available. We will create quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g., interview, focus group, and lab observation protocols) measures informed by the needs and perspectives of current ERCs. These instruments will be field-tested across TEEC ERCs and other participating ERCs who have indicated an interest in using the suite of instruments. These instruments will be accompanied by an evaluator toolbox designed to support and guide evaluators in the use of these instruments. These resources will doubly serve as a means of creating an ERC community of practice around evaluation. The resulting resources will be made broadly available electronically through currently used ERC websites/hubs. Additionally, the quantitative Multi-ERC Instrument (MERCI) will be converted into an online ERC Evaluation System easily accessed by evaluators. The proposed system will specifically streamline quantitative evaluation, which will provide for greater flexibility and creativity in the selection of qualitative evaluation approaches used by center evaluators. The adoption of these shared resources by numerous ERCs will open up never before seen opportunities for cross-ERC comparisons. The findings will significantly impact how ERCs evaluate their education and diversity programming and presents a potential suite of instruments for effectively evaluating any large center that offers similar education and diversity programs.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.