Research Initiation: Enhancing Engineering Students’ Innovation Self-Efficacy through Design of K-12 STEM Projects

研究启动：通过 K-12 STEM 项目设计提高工科学生的创新自我效能

• 批准号: 2205067
• 负责人: Azadeh Bolhari
• 金额: $ 19.99万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 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 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2205067&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Enhancing; Engineering; Students

Innovation is an important driver of economic growth and sustainable development. Learning and working in today’s global and fast-changing world requires engineers who can think innovatively and generate novel ideas. This project focuses on the innovation self-efficacy (ISE) of engineering students, which measures one’s belief in their capacity to execute innovative designs. The project is investigating how ISE is enhanced by a curricular intervention (i.e., a K-12 STEM project designed for a global audience) among undergraduate engineering students and will support a community of new researchers in engineering education. The outcomes of the study will generate new, evidence-based teaching practices to develop students’ self-efficacy in innovation which aids in the formation of engineers who are responsive to the needs of a rapidly changing society. The desired societal benefits of this study will be: 1) advancement of K-12 STEM educational activities in the field of environmental engineering through dissemination of results to a standards-aligned curricular resource, which will provide free access to global K-12 educators, 2) incorporating three undergraduate research assistants drawn from our diverse student population, and 3) providing a professional development opportunity for a public-school STEM teacher who will be partnered in the engineering-focused activity design. In this study, a curricular intervention grounded in innovative self-efficacy (ISE) will be explored as a means to encourage innovational competence into engineering students, which contributes toward a more innovative engineering curriculum, design process, and workplace. This study will actualize an ISE-grounded teaching practice in a targeted course. The extent of students’ ISE development will be measured by five overarching research questions designed to independently capture the impact of each behavioral components of ISE: 1) To what extent does the intervention shift students’ ability to raise questions that challenge assumptions and existing states of affairs?; 2) To what extent did the intervention shift students’ ability to think of new ideas that come though studying the world?; 3) To what extent does the intervention shift students’ engagement in experimentation to explore options and generate novel designs?; 4) To what extent does the intervention shift students’ ability in creating networks that could lead to new ideas?; and 5) How are students’ ability to connect ideas from different and diverse areas enhanced by the intervention? A mixed method (sequential design) study will be used to answer those research questions. Shifts in those components will be quantified using a blend of validated instruments found in the social sciences literature and will be accompanied by focus groups at the end of the intervention to generate qualitative narratives that add value to the quantitative measures. The outcomes of the study will advance the engineering education community’s knowledge of how K-12 STEM project design for a global audience might be used to intentionally achieve targeted self-efficacy development in students. The outcomes of this research will have the potential to realize new research avenues in ISE-blended, evidence-based teaching practices and pedagogies in engineering curriculum.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.

创新是经济增长和可持续发展的重要驱动力。在当今的全球和快速变化的世界中学习和工作需要创新思考并产生新思想的工程师。该项目着重于工程专业学生的创新自我效能感（ISE），该项目衡量了他们相信执行创新设计的能力。该项目正在研究本科工程专业的学生中的课程干预（即，为全球受众设计的K-12 STEM项目）来调查ISE如何增强ISE，并将支持一个新的工程教育研究人员社区。该研究的结果将产生新的，基于证据的教学实践，以发展学生在创新方面的自我效能，这有助于形成对迅速变化的社会需求的响应的工程师。这项研究的期望社会利益将是：1）通过将结果传播到标准一致的课程资源中，K-12 STEM教育活动在环境工程领域的进步，这将为全球K-12教育工作者提供免费访问，2）与我们的专业人群一起提供专业的工作机会，并为自己提供了专业的工作机会，并为自己的专业发展提供了一项良好的工作，并为他们提供了专业的工作机会。在这项研究中，将探讨以创新自我效能感（ISE）的课程干预措施，以鼓励对工程专业学生的创新能力，这有助于更具创新性的工程课程，设计过程和工作场所。这项研究实际上将是针对性课程中具有ISE的教学实践。学生的ISE发展程度将由五个旨在独立捕获ISE行为组成部分的影响的五个总体研究问题来衡量：1）干预措施在多大程度上改变了学生提出挑战假设和现有状态的问题的能力？ 2）干预措施在多大程度上改变了学生思考研究世界的新想法的能力？ 3）干预措施在多大程度上改变了学生参与实验以探索选项并产生新颖设计？ 4）干预措施在多大程度上改变了学生创建可能导致新想法的网络的能力？ 5）学生如何通过干预来增强不同领域和不同领域的思想的能力？混合方法（顺序设计）研究将用于回答这些研究问题。这些组件的变化将使用社会科学文献中发现的经过验证的工具的融合来量化，并将通过焦点小组在干预结束时完成，以产生定性叙述，从而为定量措施增加价值。这项研究的结果将提高工程教育社区对如何使用全球受众的K-12 STEM项目设计的了解，以实现有针对性的学生发展学生。这项研究的结果将有可能在工程课程中实现ISE混合，基于证据的教学实践和教学的新研究途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来评估的。

项目成果

Exploring the Role of Mentorship in Enhancing Engineering Students’ Innovation Self-Efficacy.

探索导师在增强工程学生创新自我效能方面的作用。

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Maryland.
• 作者: Bolhari, A.

A Slippery Situation: Oil Spill Cleanup and Polarity

棘手的情况：溢油清理和极性

• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: TeachEngineering Digital Library
• 作者: Vaisanen, V.;Tyson, E.;Wood, R.;Nelson, R.;Dupeyron, T.;Shahi, A.;Bolhari, A.;Bielefeldt, A.
• 通讯作者: Bielefeldt, A.

Work in Progress: Exploring Innovation Self-Efficacy in Neurodiverse Engineering Students.

正在进行的工作：探索神经多样化工程专业学生的创新自我效能感。

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Maryland.
• 作者: Bolhari, A.