Engaging Underrepresented Populations in Environmental Action through Mentoring, Geospatial Technology and Digital Media Storytelling

该项目旨在同时解决几个挑战：需要提高以环境为重点的STEAM（即科学、技术、工程、艺术和数学）职业和教育计划的学习者和工作者的多样性，需要扩大对社区环境行动的参与，需要培训未来以环境为重点的STEAM工作者进行有效的科学交流。该项目建立在一个现有项目的基础上，该项目通过地理空间技术让青少年参与代际社区保护项目，以便更好地吸引代表性不足的青少年。该项目的创新之处在于，包括本科生对高中生的近同龄人指导，以及对现有项目进行其他文化上的修订，如纳入其他数字媒体形式以更好地支持叙事，以及整合由从事相关环境、地理空间和数字媒体职业的专业人士领导的职业指导小组。为了让这些本科生成为接近同伴的导师，他们将参加一个通过讲故事和指导的环境行动课程。该计划将让学校小组（每个小组约有5名青少年和1名教师）参与短期研讨会和长期环境行动项目，由同行导师、大学教师和社区保护合作伙伴指导。这些项目的数字叙事产品将通过广播、电视和数字平台与公众分享。研究问题是围绕“身份创作”的概念构建的，这需要参与的三个维度：发展与领域内容相关的能力，参与领域特定实践的表现，以及因自己的能力和表现而得到认可（被自己和他人）。该项目将（RQ1）调查学习者的职业兴趣和身份创作如何受到数字媒体支持的科学传播、近同伴指导和参与社区环境行动的影响。该项目还将（RQ2）描述身份创作是如何在学校内进行的。该项目将涉及270名未被充分代表的青少年、60名本科生和54名教育工作者，他们都将完成调查前、调查后和调查后的调查，以衡量参与者的身份创作。为了解决第二个研究问题，有目的的抽样将被用来选择4-10名参与者进行纵向案例研究，另外4-10名参与者进行焦点小组研究。该项目对该领域的贡献在于探索不同的项目元素如何鼓励未被充分代表的年轻人创作身份。该项目更广泛的影响包括让学习者接触与探索和交流环境问题相关的STEAM职业，以及青年项目可能对当地社区环境问题产生的影响。为了促进其他人采用该计划模式，该方法将通过各种传播策略与社区成员、同行和关注环境的STEAM专业人员分享。该项目由面向学生和教师的创新技术体验（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持建立对实践、程序元素、环境和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于增加学生对科学、技术、工程、计算机和计算机的知识和兴趣。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智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

This project seeks to address several challenges simultaneously: there is a need to improve the diversity of learners and workers in environmentally-focused STEAM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) careers and educational programs, a need to broaden participation in community environmental action, and a need to train future environmentally-focused STEAM workers in effective science communication. This project builds on an existing program that engages teens in intergenerational community conservation projects via geospatial technology so that it can better engage underrepresented youth. The innovation of the project is the inclusion of near-peer mentoring of high school students by undergraduate students, along with other culturally sustaining revisions to the existing program like the inclusion of other digital media forms to better support narrative storytelling, and the integration of a career guidance panel led by professionals engaged in relevant environmental, geospatial, and digital media careers. To prepare the undergraduates as near-peer mentors, they will be engaged in an Environmental Action through Storytelling and Mentoring course. The program will engage school pods (each with about 5 teens and 1 teacher) in both short-term workshops and long-term environmental action projects, guided by the near-peer mentors, university faculty, and community conservation partners. The digital storytelling products of these projects will be shared with the general public via radio, television, and digital platforms.The research questions are framed around the concept of “identity authoring,” which entails three dimensions of engagement: developing competence with a domain’s content, engaging in performances of domain-specific practices, and being recognized (by oneself and by others) for one’s competence and performance. The project will (RQ1) investigate how the learners’ career interests and identity authoring are influenced by the digital media-supported science communication, the near-peer mentoring, and engagement in community environmental action. The project will also (RQ2) characterize how identity authoring takes place within the school pods. The project will engage up to 270 underrepresented teens, 60 undergraduates, and 54 educators, all of whom will complete pre-, post- and delayed-surveys to measure participants’ identity authoring. To address the second research question, purposive sampling will be used to select 4-10 participants for a longitudinal case study and an additional 4-10 participants for focus groups. The contribution to the field lies in the project’s exploration of how different program elements may encourage identity authoring among underrepresented youth. The broader impacts of the project include exposing learners to the constellation of STEAM careers associated with exploring and communicating environmental issues, as well as the impacts the youth projects may have on local community environmental issues. To facilitate adoption of the program model by others, the approach will be shared via a variety of dissemination strategies with community members, peers, and environmentally-focused STEAM professionals. 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) careersThis 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.