Partnership to Provide Technology and Cyber-security Experiences to Alabama Black Belt through Mobile Application Development

虽然STEM领域，特别是信息技术和网络安全领域的就业增长一直在持续增长，但这些劳动力领域的多样性并没有以可比的速度增长。这个开发和测试创新（DTI）项目将推动努力，更好地理解和促进提高少数民族高中生追求STEM职业的动机和能力的实践。该项目将让学生在计算机领域，特别是在网络安全领域进行实地实践、实验室/项目创业任务和指导经验。该项目基于对高中生使用基于项目的学习（PBL）环境，是塔斯基吉大学、奥本大学、阿拉巴马州历史悠久的黑带地区的农村和城市学区、塔斯基吉大学工程和计算机科学校友会以及阿拉巴马州教育部之间的合作伙伴关系。该合作伙伴关系的重点是每年从合作学区招募40名不同民族和种族的高中生，让他们沉浸在由塔斯基吉大学主办的为期四周的STEM密集PBL暑期学院中，然后进行一个学期的校内培训。该学院旨在通过在PBL框架下令人兴奋的安全移动应用程序开发探索，每年为40名即将升入10年级和11年级的学生和10名高中教师（三年资助期内为150名）提供影响深远的技术经验。该项目将在一所历史悠久的黑人大学塔斯基吉大学（Tuskegee University）举办一个为期一个月的培训项目（为期四周的暑期学院），在小组环境中提供基本信息技术和信息安全概念的实践培训，然后在他们选择的项目中进行一个学期的学校培训。每个小组都将得到塔斯基吉大学计算机科学学院的协助。学生们使用MIT APP Inventor环境开发了一个安全的移动应用程序，并使用android手机进行测试。研究的关键问题是：(1)在PBL环境中进行为期四周的创新技术导向体验，然后进行一学期的校内培训，在多大程度上影响了少数民族高中生对stem相关职业的知识、兴趣、动机和态度？(2)与导师合作的小组经历如何影响少数民族高中生对stem相关职业的兴趣和意识？(3)项目完成后，其效果在多大程度上持续存在？它们会导致stem相关的高等教育计划吗？(4)哪些教学和辅导策略可以有效地促进少数民族高中生对stem相关职业的知识、兴趣和态度？将采用混合方法设计，结合定性和定量数据来检验PBL环境中学生对STEM的动机和态度。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目共同资助，该项目支持有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣的实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解。该项目也由促进竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。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。

While job growth in STEM fields, specifically in information technology and cybersecurity, has been consistently on the rise, diversity in these workforce fields has not grown at a comparable pace. This Developing and Testing Innovations (DTI) project will advance efforts to better understand and promote practices that increase minority high school students' motivations and capacities to pursue STEM careers. This project will engage students in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences in fields of computing, specifically in cybersecurity. This project, based on the use of a Project Based Learning (PBL) environment with high school students, is a partnership between Tuskegee University, Auburn University, a rural and an urban school district in the historic Black Belt region of the state of Alabama, Tuskegee University Engineering and Computer Science Alumni Associations, and the Alabama State Department of Education. The focus of the partnership is to recruit annually a cohort of forty ethnically and racially diverse high school students from the partnering school districts for immersion in a STEM intensive PBL four-week STEM Summer Academy hosted by Tuskegee University, followed by one semester in-school training. The Academy is designed to provide 40 rising 10th and 11th grade students and ten high-school teachers annually (150 over the life of the three-year grant) with far-reaching technological experiences through the exciting exploration of secured mobile application development under a PBL framework. The project will provide, in a group setting, hands-on training in basic information technology and information security concepts through a one-month training program (4-week Summer Academy) hosted at Tuskegee University, a Historically Black University, followed by one semester in school training on a project of their choice. Each of the groups will be assisted by a computer science faculty of Tuskegee University. The students develop a secured mobile application using the MIT APP Inventor environment and test it using an android phone. The key questions being addressed are: (1) To what extent does the innovative four-week technology-oriented experience in a PBL environment followed by one semester in-school training impact minority high school students’ knowledge, interest, motivation, and attitudes towards STEM-related careers? (2) In what ways does the collaborative small group experience with mentor teachers affect minority high school students’ interest and awareness of STEM-related careers? (3) To what extent do the effects of the program persist after its completion? Do they lead to STEM-related post-secondary plans? (4) What instructional and mentoring strategies can be effectively integrated in to boost minority high school students’ knowledge, interest, and attitudes towards STEM-related careers? A mixed-method design with both qualitative and quantitative data will be used to examine the students' motivation and attitude towards STEM in a PBL environment. This project is co-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 project is also jointly co-funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.