A Participatory Design Investigation of the Relationship between Program Setting and Science Identity Development

科学身份已被证明是学术成功和坚持科学轨迹的必要先决条件。此外，科学身份的形成，在很大程度上，由于访问的种类，真实的或感知，（种族化）的学习者有科学空间。特别是对于黑人和拉丁裔青年来说，美国的主流科学思想作为一门学科和一种文化，承认和支持某些学习者，而排斥其他人。如果不发展自己的身份，成为能够从事科学研究的学习者，或者成为未来的科学家，这些年轻人就不太可能在任何科学领域从事职业。积极的科学身份与特定地方提供的物质和社会资源之间存在明显的联系。因此，青年人是否能够将自己视为科学家，或者甚至感到他们有机会参与科学实践，该项目的总体目标是通过加深我们对科学身份的理解以及如何更好地设计科学学习空间以支持这些人积极的科学身份的发展，来扩大黑人和拉丁裔青年对科学的参与。学习者通过深化科学学习空间如何塑造科学身份的领域的知识，科学教育工作者可以设计更公平的学习空间，利用程序位置，文化相关的课程，和参与者的生活经验的空间方面。积极的科学身份的更广泛的理解，使教育工作者认识到这些在黑人和拉丁美洲的学习者，并指导他们继续科学参与相应的，积极的身份导致更大的坚持科学。这个项目是纽约大学的研究人员和纽约市非正式科学组织BioBus的研究人员之间的合作。它由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这个参与式设计研究项目将比较三种不同的格式，在不同的环境中，为中学生提供课后科学课程：一个位于附近大学校园的实验室空间，一个位于参与学生的公立中学大楼，一个在移动的科学实验室上。就本研究而言，“环境”的构念是指地理位置、建筑物的物理环境和物质资源。环境不是静态的，而是社会的和关系的：它是动态的（共同）构建和经验的活动，由个人和团体的个人互动。因此，三种BioBus编程类型允许进行生产性比较，不仅因为它们的地理位置、建筑环境和物质资源不同（例如，科学工具），而且学习者可能与这些地方的现有关系，以及BioBus教学科学家在每个地方使用的教学设计和教学实践。本研究采用设计性研究方法，旨在回答以下问题：（1）科学学习情境如何塑造科学认同发展？从这些关系中可能产生哪些不同的积极科学身份？以及（2）如何利用非正式科学规划和教学的不同空间方面来支持积极的科学身份？该研究使用民族志和微观分析方法，以更好地理解设置和科学身份发展之间的关系，揭示了我们的黑人和拉丁裔学生所采取的积极的科学身份的广泛类型，并通知非正式的科学教育设计和利用空间方面的编程和教学。调查结果将有助于建立一个系统的知识库，将非正式科学教育的空间方面与科学特性和特性发展结合起来，并为非正式科学教育工作者提供新的工具，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估来支持审查标准。

Science identity has been shown to be a necessary precondition to academic success and persistence in science trajectories. Further, science identities are formed, in large part, due to the kinds of access, real or perceived, that (racialized) learners have to science spaces. For Black and Latinx youth, in particular, mainstream ideas of science as a discipline and as a culture in the US recognize and support certain learners and marginalize others. Without developing identities as learners who can do science, or can become future scientists, these young people are not likely to pursue careers in any scientific field. There are demonstrable links between positive science identities and the material and social resources provided by particular places. Thus, whether young people can see themselves as scientists, or even feel that they have access to science practices, also depends on where they are learning it. The overarching goal of this project is to broaden participation of Black and Latinx youth in science by deepening our understanding of both science identities and how science learning spaces may be better designed to support the development of positive science identities of these learners. By deepening the field’s knowledge of how science learning spaces shape science identities, science educators can design more equitable learning spaces that leverage the spatial aspects of program location, culturally relevant curriculum, and participants’ lived experiences. A more expansive understanding of positive science identities allows educators to recognize these in Black and Latinx learners, and direct their continued science engagements accordingly, as positive identities lead to greater persistence in science. This project is a collaboration between researchers at New York University and those at a New York City informal science organization, BioBus. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.This participatory design research project will compare three different formats, in different settings, of afterschool science programming for middle schoolers: one located in a lab space on the campus of a nearby university, one located in the public middle school building of participating students, and one aboard a mobile science lab. For purposes of this study, the construct of “setting” refers to the dimensions of geographic location, built physical environment, and material resources. Setting is not static, but instead social and relational: it is dynamically (co)constructed and experienced in activity by individuals and in interaction by groups of individuals. Therefore, the three BioBus programming types allow for productive comparison not only because of their different geographic locations, built environments, and material resources (e.g., scientific tools), but also the existing relationships learners may have with these places, as well as the instructional designs and pedagogical practices that BioBus teaching scientists use in each. This project uses a design-based research approach to answer the following research questions: (1) How do the settings of science learning shape science identity development? What are different positive science identities that may emerge from these relationships? And (2) What are ways to leverage different spatial aspects of informal science programming and instruction to support positive science identities? The study uses ethnographic and micro-analytic methods to develop better understandings of the relationships between setting and science identity development, uncover a broad range of types of positive science identities taken up by our Black and Latinx students, and inform informal science education to design for and leverage spatial aspects of programming and instruction. Findings will contribute to a systematic knowledge base bringing together spatial aspects of informal science education and science identity and identity development, and provide new tools for informal science educators, including design principles for incorporating spatial factors into program and lesson planning.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.