RAPID: Creating Opportunities for Visualization of Data: Applying STEM Education Research

这项RAPID研究结合了由科学家和传播者组成的多元化项目团队，以调查人们如何解释有关COVID-19的定量数据的表示。这些表示包括地图、图表和图表，它们通常用于报纸、电视、网站和新闻发布会等媒体。 研究表明，许多人难以解释这些表征中呈现的信息。 因此，公众了解COVID-19疫情严重程度的工具可能有限，这可能限制他们使用数据就其风险及有效风险缓解行动作出决策的能力。 针对这一紧迫问题，该项目立即开展了一项研究，调查个人在大流行期间的理解和决定。 它将利用这一信息制定新的方法来显示量化数据，以促进更好的理解。 这些方法可能有助于提高科学和数学素养，也将纳入本科STEM课程。 该研究包括一种多阶段设计研究方法，通过基于任务的临床访谈的迭代序列来调查COVID-19定量数据表示（QDR）。在第一阶段，项目团队将调查不同的人群，以产生参与者的QDR解释的差异化模型，并将这些模型并置，以揭示参与者的关键概念类别。在第二阶段，项目团队将应用第一阶段和STEM教育研究的结果，创建基于研究的、项目设计的QDR，同时调查这些QDR在多大程度上更好地支持个人对大流行的理解。在第三阶段，项目小组将积极传播成果，以引起人们对项目产生的知识和产品的关注。为反映COVID-19的社会影响，传播计划针对教育和公共传播媒体社区。总的来说，项目活动和交付成果有可能产生更深入的理解和具体的例子，说明STEM教育研究如何用于改善学生和公民的学习和福祉。 通过直接与教育和媒体社区的成员合作，项目团队将提高项目曝光率和可供公众使用的QDR，以确保STEM教育研究不仅影响学生的教育经历，而且影响公众以积极影响他们生活的方式解释定量数据的能力。 该RAPID奖由NSF教育和人力资源/本科教育部的改善本科STEM教育计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RAPID study incorporates a diverse project team of scientists and communicators to investigate how people interpret representations of quantitative data regarding COVID-19. Such representations include maps, graphs, and charts, which are commonly used in media such as newspapers, television, websites, and press briefings. Research indicates that many people have difficulty interpreting the information presented in these representations. As a result, the public may have limited tools for understanding the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may limit their ability to use the data in making decisions about their risk and effective risk-mitigation actions. The project responds to this pressing issue by immediately enacting a study to investigate individuals’ understandings and decisions during the pandemic. It will use this information to develop new approaches to displaying quantitative data that can promote greater understanding. Such approaches are likely to be useful for increasing scientific and mathematical literacy, and will also be incorporated into undergraduate STEM courses. The study includes a multi-phase design-research approach to investigating COVID-19 quantitative data representations (QDRs) through an iterative sequence of task-based clinical interviews. In Phase I, the project team will investigate a diverse population to produce differentiated models of participants’ QDR interpretations and juxtapositions of these models that reveal key conceptual categories across participants. In Phase II, the project team will apply findings from Phase I and STEM education research to create research-based, project-designed QDRs while simultaneously investigating the extent to which these QDRs better support individuals’ understanding of the pandemic. In Phase III, the project team will actively disseminate the results, to draw attention to knowledge and products generated by the project. Reflecting the societal implications of COVID-19, the dissemination plan targets both educational and public communication media communities. Collectively, the project activities and deliverables have the potential to produce a deeper understanding and tangible examples of how STEM education research can be used to improve students’ and citizens’ learning and well-being. Through working directly with members of education and media communities, the project team will improve project exposure and the QDRs made available for public use to ensure that STEM education research impacts not only students’ educational experiences, but also the general public’s ability to interpret quantitative data in ways that positively influence their lives. This RAPID award is funded by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program in the NSF Education and Human Resources/Division of Undergraduate Education.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.