Bolstering STEM Pathways for Students in Rural New England Through a Comprehensive, Multi-Year Learning Community

通过全面的多年学习社区为新英格兰农村地区的学生提供 STEM 途径

• 批准号: 2148345
• 负责人: Markus Testorf
• 金额: $ 144.8万
• 依托单位: NEW HAMPSHIRE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148345&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Bolstering; STEM; Pathways; Students; Rural

This project addresses access to STEM educational experiences for rural students. Students from rural areas and small towns make up about 30% of the U.S. secondary school population but often lack inspirational STEM educational opportunities and experiences. This makes them less likely to pursue STEM majors in college, which is a potential loss of human talent in STEM innovation. This investigation will explore how providing a comprehensive, multi-year academic and personal support system can attract and retain underrepresented rural high school students, especially girls, from underserved rural areas of NH and VT. It studies how the experience affects students' identity as STEM researchers and, in turn, their pathways to post-secondary STEM/ICT activities. One of the challenges faced by rural students is the geographic inaccessibility of opportunities to participate in outside-of-school STEM/ICT activities. This long-term investigation will compare the experiences of rural underrepresented students who participate in-person in authentic STEM/ICT research with those who participate remotely. The impact of a supportive STEM/ICT community will also be investigated as students, regardless of remote or virtual research, will be provided with mentorship from STEM professionals, near-peer mentors from their rural communities, standardized test preparation, and financial planning that draws in their parents and guardians as they prepare as a family to navigate the college application and admittance process, a critical step in their career pathways in STEM/ICT.The project's research explores the question, “How do rural high school students’ STEM identities develop over time as they engage with peers and mentors in a comprehensive program that enhances project-based learning with mentoring, college application support, and community outreach?” Researchers hypothesize that collaborations with science-minded peers, near-peers, and adults will strengthen rural students’ sense that they, too, belong to a community of scientists who can make meaningful contributions to a STEM field or discipline. All students will complete annual surveys about science identity and belonging. A subgroup will be observed and interviewed. Using Photovoice, a community-based participatory research method, this subsample will also take pictures of what it means to do science in their community, and who does science in their community. Aggregated results and individual case narratives will illustrate commonalities and variations in student experiences and outcomes, and speculate on the program features that may contribute to those differences. The findings will contribute to a growing but currently limited body of research on how to attract and retain rural students in STEM and ICT post-secondary pathways. Progress and results will be shared with the general public, and regional and national STEM outreach audiences. Student participants will take a lead role in some of this dissemination. 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.

该项目旨在解决农村学生获得STEM教育经验的问题。来自农村和小城镇的学生约占美国中学人口的30%，但他们往往缺乏鼓舞人心的STEM教育机会和经验。这使得他们不太可能在大学里攻读STEM专业，这是人类在STEM创新方面的潜在损失。本调查将探讨如何提供一个全面的，多年的学术和个人支持系统，以吸引和留住代表性不足的农村高中学生，特别是女孩，来自服务不足的新罕布什尔州和VT农村地区。它研究了这种经历如何影响学生作为STEM研究人员的身份，进而影响他们进入中学后STEM/ICT活动的途径。农村学生面临的挑战之一是缺乏参加校外STEM/ICT活动的机会。这项长期调查将比较农村代表性不足的学生亲自参与真正的STEM/ICT研究与远程参与研究的经历。支持STEM/ICT社区的影响也将被调查，因为无论远程还是虚拟研究，学生都将获得STEM专业人士的指导，来自农村社区的近同龄人导师，标准化考试准备以及吸引父母和监护人的财务规划，因为他们作为一个家庭准备大学申请和录取过程，这是他们在STEM/ICT职业道路上的关键一步。该项目的研究探讨了这样一个问题：“随着时间的推移，农村高中生的STEM身份是如何随着他们与同龄人和导师在一个综合项目中的互动而发展的，该项目通过指导、大学申请支持和社区外展来增强基于项目的学习？”研究人员假设，与有科学头脑的同龄人、近同龄人和成年人合作，将增强农村学生的一种意识，即他们也属于一个可以为STEM领域或学科做出有意义贡献的科学家群体。所有学生将完成关于科学身份和归属的年度调查。将对一个小组进行观察和访谈。使用Photovoice，一种基于社区的参与性研究方法，这个子样本还将拍摄在他们的社区中从事科学研究意味着什么，以及谁在他们的社区中从事科学研究。综合结果和个案叙述将说明学生经历和结果的共性和差异，并推测可能导致这些差异的项目特征。这些研究结果将有助于开展越来越多但目前有限的关于如何吸引和留住农村学生进入STEM和ICT高等教育途径的研究。将与公众以及区域和国家STEM外展受众分享进展和成果。学生参与者将在其中一些传播中发挥主导作用。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。