Developing underserved elementary students’ systems thinking and economic literacy through investigations of local ecological-economic systems

通过对当地生态经济系统的调查，培养服务不足的小学生的系统思维和经济素养

• 批准号: 2048828
• 负责人: Amanda Dickes
• 金额: $ 47.71万
• 依托单位: Gulf of Maine Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2048828&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; underserved; elementary; students; systems

This project will advance efforts to better understand and promote practices that broaden access to and interest in regionally relevant science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations for underrepresented youth in the state of Maine. This project will engage students in investigations of local marine ecosystems through the construction and revision of computational models of those systems. Students will further explore human-nature interactions through participation in simulated gameplay modeling the social and ecological impact of economic decision-making within resource-driven economies. Maine’s aquaculture industry will serve as the context for this work, providing both a setting to study relationships within marine ecosystems through hands-on learning experiences at active farms, but also the context within which relationships between economic and ecological systems are identified, tested, and understood. Key contributions of this project include (1) elucidating a model for local school districts to connect participating youth with a regional workforce through industry and community partnerships, (2) broadening participation in Maine’s growing aquaculture industry, (3) providing Maine elementary students with a foundation of systems thinking and economic reasoning, and (4) supporting a future citizenry who understand how particular decisions based on anticipated futures can achieve or not achieve certain environmental goals.This investigation will prepare 250+ elementary students from rural and immigrant/refugee communities within the state of Maine to participate in Maine’s growing aquaculture industry through the design of an integrated suite of learning experiences that will include hands-on field experiences at active aquaculture farms, mentorship with local farmers, and classroom-based activities which foreground the affordances of scientific modeling as a means to represent, test, and understand relationships within the natural world. The goal is to establish a bridge between the classroom and a regional workforce, and to develop multiple areas of skill and knowledge – including systems thinking and economic reasoning – that can be flexibly deployed across a students’ entire academic career and across evolving future work environments. This project will use a mixed methods approach to explore the impact of the learning innovations on the experiences and understandings of both teachers and students. Instruments used will include teacher and student interviews, surveys measuring learner identity and interest in STEM careers, and classroom observations of the curriculum in practice. The understandings that result from the project’s research will elucidate a model for connecting local youth with regionally relevant careers and contribute to the understanding of how a learning model connecting students with a local workforce can support the development of STEM knowledge and identities, particularly in those from underrepresented backgrounds. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.

该项目将进一步努力，更好地理解和推广实践，扩大缅因州代表性不足的青年对区域相关科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 职业的接触和兴趣。该项目将让学生通过构建和修订这些系统的计算模型来调查当地海洋生态系统。学生将通过参与模拟游戏来进一步探索人与自然的相互作用，模拟资源驱动型经济体中经济决策的社会和生态影响。缅因州的水产养殖业将作为这项工作的背景，既提供了一个通过活跃农场的实践学习经验来研究海洋生态系统内关系的环境，也提供了识别、测试和理解经济和生态系统之间关系的背景。该项目的主要贡献包括（1）阐明当地学区通过行业和社区合作伙伴关系将参与的青年与地区劳动力联系起来的模型，（2）扩大对缅因州不断发展的水产养殖业的参与，（3）为缅因州小学生提供系统思维和经济推理的基础，以及（4）支持未来公民，让他们了解基于预期未来的特定决策如何实现或无法实现某些环境目标。这项调查 将为来自缅因州农村和移民/难民社区的 250 多名小学生做好准备，通过设计一套综合的学习体验参与缅因州不断发展的水产养殖业，其中包括在活跃的水产养殖场的实践经验、对当地农民的指导以及基于课堂的活动，这些活动强调科学建模作为表示、测试和理解自然世界中关系的手段的可行性。目标是在课堂和地区劳动力之间建立一座桥梁，并培养多个领域的技能和知识——包括系统思维和经济推理——这些技能和知识可以灵活地部署在学生的整个学术生涯和不断变化的未来工作环境中。该项目将采用混合方法来探索学习创新对教师和学生的经验和理解的影响。使用的工具包括教师和学生访谈、衡量学习者身份和对 STEM 职业兴趣的调查以及实践课程的课堂观察。该项目研究得出的结论将阐明一种将当地青年与区域相关职业联系起来的模型，并有助于理解将学生与当地劳动力联系起来的学习模式如何支持 STEM 知识和身份的发展，特别是对于那些来自弱势背景的人。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验 (ITEST) 计划资助，该计划支持旨在加深对实践、计划要素、背景和流程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 以及信息和通信技术 (ICT) 职业的知识和兴趣。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势进行评估，被认为值得支持。 以及更广泛的影响审查标准。