CAREER: Investigating Black Youths’ Engineering, Innovation, and Design Practices at the Intersection of Museum and Home/Family Learning

像博物馆这样的非正式STEM教育空间可以有意地为周围社区服务，并支持可持续和无障碍的参与。在此基础上，该项目采取了一种立场，即博物馆，家庭/家庭生活，青年内部实践和自我纪律感的交叉点根植于历史和文化。因此，这项职业工作建立在以下原则之上：黑人家庭和青年在STEM和STEM学习环境中有正当的存在；黑人家庭是宝贵的学习伙伴；黑人青年需要反击空间来探索STEM作为创建未来纪律机构的一种机制。该项目与亨利福特博物馆和底特律地区大学预科工程项目合作，旨在(a)扩大该领域对黑人青年如何设计和创新的理解；(b)调查与文化相关的课程对他们的工程实践和身份、知识和信心的影响；(c)描述黑人家庭和博物馆支持年轻人学习工程经验的方式。这项工作将以20小时的“创新”课程为中心，该课程由博物馆设计，旨在将设计，创新和创作实践与创新者的文物联系起来。该项目包括六个周末的“创新”会议和在家创新体验，以及参加年度发明大会。通过关注这些目标，本研究回应了推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划的目标，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中公众STEM学习机会的设计和开发的循证理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大STEM学习经验的参与，并推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究。这个多阶段职业奖的主要研究问题是：(1)黑人青年和家庭在应对工程、设计和创新挑战时从事什么实践？(2)当黑人青年和家庭在学习环境中从事工程、设计和创新时，与文化相关的以博物馆为基础的创新项目以何种方式影响他们的设计和创新实践以及评估表现？(3)透过历史复述与重建的教学创新、设计与工程，如何影响青年对自身身份、能力与实践的认知？(4)黑人家庭如何参与非正式的STEM学习环境，哪些资源最能支持他们的工程、设计和创新探索？六年级青少年是本研究的重点对象。这项工作以生态系统、社会文化学习、文化相关教学法和社区文化财富理论为指导。在第一阶段，重点将是完善课程和研究实施的后勤。调查人员将加强课程，纳入黑人创新者和工程师的故事。将招募15个家庭参加第二阶段的项目增强试点和初始研究周期。在第三阶段，将招募另一批家庭参与。调查研究、叙事探究和数字民族志将包括探索研究问题的方法。评估有两方面的重点：评估(1)增强的创新课程和博物馆/家庭学习体验对黑人家庭参与的支持程度；(2)研究的各个阶段之间的联系和运作情况如何，以满足研究目标。这项研究的发现可以帮助家庭和非正式从业者利用基于证据的方法来支持黑人青年在历史和校外环境之间建立联系，以模拟和发展他们的创新工程实践。此外，这项工作对黑人本科生也有影响，他们将通过导师和研究员的角色来发展技能，研究文化习俗和学习经验。研究结果可以为未来博物馆/家庭学习计划的设计提供信息，并为黑人学习者在非正式学习空间中的研究机会提供信息。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。

Informal STEM education spaces like museums can intentionally serve surrounding communities and support sustainable and accessible engagement. Building from this base, the project takes a stance that the intersection of the museum, home/family life and the youth’s internal practices and disciplinary sense of self are rooted in history and culture. Thus, this CAREER work builds on the following principles: Black families and youth have rightful presence in STEM and in STEM learning environments; Black families are valuable learning partners; and Black youths need counterspaces to explore STEM as one mechanism for creating future disciplinary agency. In partnership with the Henry Ford Museum and the Detroit-Area Pre-College Engineering Program, the project seeks to (a) expand the field's understanding of how Black youth engineer and innovate; (b) investigate the influence of a culturally relevant curriculum on their engineering practices and identity, knowledge, and confidence; and (c) describe the ways Black families and museums support youth in engineering learning experiences. The work will center on the 20-hour “Innovate” curriculum which was designed by the museum to bridge design, innovation, and creation practices with the artifacts of innovators throughout time. The project comprises six weekend “Innovate” sessions and an at-home innovation experience plus participation in an annual Invention Convention. By focusing on these aims, this research responds to the goals of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening engagement in STEM learning experiences and advancing innovative research on STEM learning in informal environments. The main research questions of this multiphase CAREER award are: (1) What practices do Black youths and families engage in as they address engineering, design, and innovation challenges? (2) In what ways does a culturally relevant museum-based innovation program influence the design and innovation practices and assessment performance of Black youths and families as they engage in engineering, design, and innovation across learning settings? (3) How does teaching innovation, design, and engineering through historical re-telling and reconstruction influence a youth’s perception of their own identities, abilities, and practices? and (4) How do Black families engage with informal STEM learning settings and what resources best support their engineering, design, and innovation exploration? Youth in sixth grade are the focus of the research. The work is guided by ecological systems, sociocultural learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and community cultural wealth theories. During phase one, the focus will be to refine the curriculum and logistics of the study implementation. The investigator will enhance the curriculum to include narratives of Black innovators and engineers. Fifteen families will be recruited to participate in the program enhancement pilot and initial research cycle for phase two. In phase three another cohort of families will be recruited to participate. Survey research, narrative inquiry and digital ethnography will comprise the approaches to explore the research questions. The evaluation has a two-pronged focus: to assess (1) how well the enhanced Innovate curriculum and museum/home learning experience supports Black families’ participation and (2) how well the separate phases of the study connect and operate together to meet the research aims. The study’s findings can help families and informal practitioners leverage evidence-based approaches to support Black youth in making connections between history and out-of-school contexts to model and develop their innovative engineering practices. Additionally, this work has implications for Black undergraduate students who will develop skills through their mentorship and researcher roles, studying cultural practices and learning experiences. The research study and findings can inform the design of future museum/home learning programs and research opportunities for Black learners in informal learning spaces.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.