Empathy-Driven Engineering Internships for Teens: Connecting Technical Work to Social Needs

这个项目回应了女性、非裔美国人和拉丁裔人在工程领域持续代表性不足的现象。许多年轻人对什么是工程和工程师的工作的理解仍然有限，有时甚至是不准确的。通常，这些对工程学的有限认识与年轻人的兴趣和优势不一致。无论是在校还是校外的经历，都可以为年轻人提供强大的机会，让他们熟悉工程和工程职业道路，发展与工程相关的知识和技能，并开始培养对工程的兴趣。然而，这些经验往往是短期的，这可能会限制年轻人能够的程度：认识到工程如何与他们的兴趣相结合，开始将自己视为工程师，并体验真实的，迭代的工程设计过程。该项目通过在全国五个地点（科罗拉多州、加利福尼亚州、阿拉巴马州、新泽西州和华盛顿特区）安排120名年轻人进行为期数月的工程实习，解决了这一限制。该项目还解决了另一个挑战：许多大学预科工程经验的传统重点是技术和技术解决方案，这限制了年轻人发展解决社会技术问题所需技能的机会，也限制了年轻人看到他们的兴趣如何与工程相一致的机会。参加Build a Better Book实习的青少年将花三到四个月的时间参与迭代工程设计过程和实践，为失明或弱视儿童设计和制作书籍和其他产品。这个机会将使年轻人能够发展技术技能，包括使用激光切割机和3D打印机等技术，同时也包括关注工程工作如何造福人类。青少年创作的无障碍书籍、游戏和其他产品的设计将在项目网站上分享，以便与他人分享和复制。本项目的研究目的是研究长期、专业结构、共情驱动的工程实习对青少年对工程、身份和可转移STEM技能的看法的影响。本研究旨在通过将工程的人部分框架与利益持续理论的原则相结合，了解干预如何能够发展出更具包容性和以人为本的工程身份。来自科罗拉多大学博尔德分校、洛杉矶之心（HOLA）、山湖图书馆、Trussville城市学校、华盛顿领导学院特许学校和J. Sickler咨询公司的研究人员和教育工作者将合作进行基于设计的案例研究，以检查五种不同的正规和非正规教育环境中的实习模式，以解决三个问题：(1)共情驱动的工程实习模式在多大程度上、以何种方式影响了青少年实习生对工程、个人工程身份、可转移的STEM劳动力技能和职业发展轨迹的看法？(2)在不同情境下，移情驱动型工程实习的哪些要素对青少年的认知和社会情感收获最为关键？(3)为了有效地吸引和激发青少年持续的兴趣，不同的环境需要在哪些方面采取不同的实施方式？为了调查这些问题，研究人员将采用比较的多案例研究设计，并通过以下方式收集数据：问卷调查前后、视频反思、焦点小组和学生人工制品。调查人员还将收集比较组和项目校友的调查反馈。数据分析计划包括描述性和推断性统计、非参数比较和使用演绎框架的定性编码。调查人员将综合每个地点的具体发现，创建案例描述，并分析不同地点之间的异同。该项目将与研究人员和实践者广泛分享研究成果，以促进该领域对积极影响（或限制）青少年追求工程的动机和他们在该领域坚持不懈的关键因素和实践的理解。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，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。

This project responds to the persistent patterns of underrepresentation of women, African American and Latinx people in engineering. Many youth continue to have a limited, and at times inaccurate, understanding of what engineering is and what engineers do. Often, these limited perceptions of engineering do not align with youths’ interests and strengths. Both in-school and out-of-school time experiences can provide powerful opportunities for young people to become familiar with engineering and engineering career pathways, develop engineering-related knowledge and skills, and begin to develop an interest in engineering. However, these experiences are often short-term, which can limit the extent that youth are able to: recognize how engineering can align with their interests, begin to see themselves as engineers, and experience an authentic, iterative engineering design process. This project addresses this limitation by engaging 120 youth in multi-month engineering internships at five sites across the country: Colorado, California, Alabama, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. The project also addresses an additional challenge: the traditional focus of many pre-college engineering experiences on technology and technical solutions can limit youths’ opportunities to develop skills needed for sociotechnical problem solving and limit opportunities for youth to see how their interests align with engineering. Youth participants in the Build a Better Book internship will spend three to four months engaging in iterative engineering design processes and practices as they design and fabricate books and other products for children who are blind or low vision. This opportunity will enable youth to develop technical skills, including work with technologies like laser cutters and 3D printers, while also including a focus on how engineering work can benefit people. Youth-created designs of accessible books, games, and other products will be shared on the project website so they can be shared with and reproduced by others. The research objective of this project is to study the influences of a long-term, professionally- structured, empathy-driven engineering internship on teens’ perceptions of engineering, identities, and transferrable STEM skills. The research seeks to understand how an intervention can develop a more inclusive and human-centered engineering identity by integrating the People Part of Engineering framework with the principles of persistence of interest theory. Researchers and educators from the University of Colorado Boulder, Heart of LA (HOLA), Mountain Lakes Library, Trussville City Schools, Washington Leadership Academy Charter School, and J. Sickler Consulting will collaborate on design-based case study research to examine the internship model in five diverse formal and informal education settings to address three questions: (1) To what extent, and in what ways, does the empathy-driven engineering internship model impact teen interns’ perceptions of engineering, personal engineering identities, transferrable STEM workforce skills, and vision of their career trajectory? (2) Which elements of empathy-driven engineering internships are most critical to teens’ cognitive and social-emotional gains, regardless of context? (3) In what ways do different contexts require distinct variations in implementation to effectively engage and activate persistence of interest in teens? To investigate these questions the investigators will use a comparative, multiple-case study design, with data collected through: pre/post questionnaires, video reflections, focus groups, and student artifacts. The investigators will also collect survey responses from a comparison group and from program alumni. Data analysis plans include descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric comparisons, and qualitative coding using a deductive framework. The investigators will synthesize findings specific to each site to create case descriptions which will also be analyzed for explore similarities and differences across the different sites. The project will share research findings broadly, with both researchers and practitioners, to advance the field’s understanding of the critical factors and practices that positively influence (or limit) teens’ motivation to pursue engineering and their persistence in the field. 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.