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.

这个合作项目是一个非正式的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）干预，它将独特地结合休斯顿大学（UH） STEM和教育教师之间的伙伴关系，以及参与者家庭和UH STEM本科导师的指导，为四年级和五年级的有色人种学生提供实践STEM经验。该项目旨在提高对STEM职业的认识和兴趣，以扩大STEM职业的参与。项目的主要组成部分将包括每周的实践活动，通过工程设计过程让学生参与技术，这些活动由本科STEM导师领导，他们也来自STEM职业中代表性不足的群体；每周科学家，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现任STEM专业人士；今天的数学题，与四年级和五年级的州标准一致；以及一个年终互动STEM博览会，在此期间，学生们向来自学校和社区的更多观众展示他们的知识。指导这个混合方法项目的研究问题将包括：1)什么样的策略有助于概念化STEM知识，以肯定学生的种族身份和文化认知方式？2)随着时间的推移，学生对STEM的认同、意识和兴趣是如何变化的？3)家庭如何参与孩子在校外STEM社区的STEM学习，4)家庭参与如何塑造学生对STEM的兴趣和他们的STEM身份？将收集和分析来自访谈、观察和工程身份和职业抱负问卷的数据，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家庭参与STEM学习的知识库，以及不同种族和民族学生的STEM身份。具体来说，该团队将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可变性，来建立他们之前对学生STEM身份和项目实施的研究。该项目还将明确侧重于扩大有色人种学生对STEM研究和职业的参与。在两年内，该项目将扩展到休斯顿地区的四所小学。在该奖项的时间轴上，该项目将通过年度互动STEM博览会，每年直接影响140名四年级和五年级的有色人种学生，以及每个站点额外的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。这项工作的最终成果将是一个由原则性适应指导的规划模型，该模型将使项目能够大规模实施。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。