Collaborative Research: Enhancing Underrepresented Student Engagement in STEM through Mentoring and Family Involvement

合作研究：通过指导和家庭参与提高代表性不足的学生对 STEM 的参与

• 批准号: 2148561
• 负责人: James Holly Jr
• 金额: $ 6.04万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 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: 2022-06-01 至 2027-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148561&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Enhancing; Underrepresented; Student

This collaborative project is an informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) intervention that will uniquely combine partnerships between STEM and education faculty at the University of Houston (UH) with mentorship from the participants’ families and UH STEM undergraduate mentors to provide hands-on STEM experiences to fourth- and fifth-grade Students of Color. The project aims to increase awareness of and interest in STEM careers as a way to broaden participation in STEM careers. Key program components will include weekly hands-on activities that engage the students with technology through the engineering design process led by undergraduate STEM mentors who also are from groups underrepresented in STEM careers; the Scientist of the Week, which exposes students either to a STEM pioneer from underrepresented groups or a current STEM professional from an industry partner; the math problem of the day, which is aligned to state standards for fourth and fifth grades; and an end-of-year interactive STEM fair, during which students demonstrate their knowledge to larger audiences from their schools and communities.The research questions that will guide this mixed-methods project will include: 1) What strategies help conceptualize STEM knowledge in a manner that affirms students' racial identity and cultural ways of knowing? 2) How do students' STEM identity and awareness of and interest in STEM change over time? 3) How do families engage in their children’s STEM learning in out-of-school STEM communities, and 4) how does family participation shape students' interest in STEM and their STEM identity? Data from interviews, observations, and questionnaires on Engineering Identity and Career Aspirations will be gathered and analyzed to study possible changes over time. The project's research will contribute to the knowledge-base on family engagement in STEM learning and the STEM identities of racially and ethnically diverse students. Specifically, the team will build upon their prior research on students' STEM identity and program implementation by studying students' STEM identity longitudinally, the racial dimensions of STEM identity, and variability in program implementation across school sites. This project will also have an explicit focus on broadening participation in STEM studies and careers among Students of Color. Within two years, the project will expand to four elementary schools in the Houston region. During the timeline of this award, the project will directly impact 140 fourth and fifth grade Students of Color and an additional 50 students and families per site, per year through the annual interactive STEM fair. This project will also directly engage 50 racially and ethnically diverse STEM mentors who lead project activities. A final product of this work will be a program model guided by principled adaptation that positions the project for large-scale implementation. 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.

该合作项目是一项非正式的科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 干预措施，将 STEM 与休斯敦大学 (UH) 教育学院之间的合作伙伴关系与参与者家庭和 UH STEM 本科生导师的指导独特地结合起来，为四年级和五年级的有色人种学生提供实践 STEM 经验。该项目旨在提高人们对 STEM 职业的认识和兴趣，以此扩大对 STEM 职业的参与。项目的关键组成部分将包括每周的实践活动，让学生通过由本科 STEM 导师领导的工程设计过程来接触技术，这些导师也来自 STEM 职业中代表性不足的群体；本周科学家，让学生接触来自代表性不足群体的 STEM 先驱或来自行业合作伙伴的当前 STEM 专业人士；当天的数学问题，符合四年级和五年级的州标准；指导这个混合方法项目的研究问题将包括：1) 哪些策略有助于以肯定学生种族身份和文化认知方式的方式概念化 STEM 知识？ 2) 学生的 STEM 身份以及对 STEM 的认识和兴趣如何随时间变化？ 3) 家庭如何参与孩子在校外 STEM 社区的 STEM 学习，以及 4) 家庭参与如何塑造学生对 STEM 的兴趣及其 STEM 身份？将收集和分析有关工程身份和职业愿望的访谈、观察和问卷调查的数据，以研究随着时间的推移可能发生的变化。该项目的研究将有助于建立有关家庭参与 STEM 学习以及不同种族和族裔学生的 STEM 身份的知识库。具体来说，该团队将在之前对学生 STEM 身份和项目实施的研究的基础上，通过纵向研究学生的 STEM 身份、STEM 身份的种族维度以及跨学校项目实施的差异性。该项目还将明确关注扩大有色人种学生对 STEM 研究和职业的参与。两年内，该项目将扩展到休斯顿地区的四所小学。在该奖项颁发期间，该项目每年将通过年度互动 STEM 博览会直接影响 140 名四年级和五年级的有色人种学生以及每个站点的另外 50 名学生和家庭。该项目还将直接聘请 50 名不同种族和民族的 STEM 导师来领导项目活动。这项工作的最终产品将是一个以原则性调整为指导的计划模型，使该项目能够大规模实施。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。